Samantha Hardy

Wait, What? And Life’s other Essential Questions, by James E. Ryan. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I’m rather obsessed by questioning! It’s an essential part of my work as a conflict management coach and conflict specialist. It’s also a fundamental life skill. This book is an extended version of a

Jay Shetty’s book is subtitled “Train your mind for peace and purpose every day”. Shetty first met a monk when he was eighteen years old and attending business school in London. This meeting led to him joining an ashram after he graduated from college, and living there for three years. He subsequently left the ashram

The Righteous Mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion – by Jonathan Haidt This book was written in 2012, but I recently re-read it and found that it still applies beautifully to the current political drama playing out in the US at the moment and the challenges of COVID. Haidt explores why

Warren Berger, the author of The Book Of Beautiful Questions, describes himself as a “questionologist”. His background as a journalist sparked his interest in questions as a tool for gathering information for a story, but he realised that questioning was also useful for solving problems, being creative and developing connections. Research has shown that children

This book, by the founder of Pixar Animation, is not directly about managing conflict. It is an inspiring lesson about leadership and creativity. But these things are always related. Catmull acknowledges that any organisation will always have problems (conflict is one) and that many of them are hidden from view. He explains that leaders have

Wow! On the cover Brené Brown says this book “shakes you by the shoulders” but for me it was more like a slap in the face! It’s a very personal, at times disjointed, collection of Glennon Doyle’s personal reflections on her life and experiences. True to form, she doesn’t write it to please the reader.

What I’ve been reading: Boundaries for Leaders, by Dr Henry Cloud. This book is a must-read for anyone who manages conflict in the workplace. Boundaries are an essential part of good conflict management and leadership. In this book, Dr Henry Cloud explains that boundaries help leaders manage themselves and lead others. They support and enhance

Amazon keeps suggesting for me books written by evolutionary psychologists. It’s not an area I thought I had a particular interest in, but some of the books and concepts are fascinating. The title of this one caught my attention immediately, because so many of my conflict clients accuse others of hypocrisy. Like blame, it seems

People in conflict often suffer from an overinflated sense of certainty. They KNOW they are right, they KNOW the other person is wrong, and they KNOW what the right outcome is. Usually, though, once we explore those things in more detail, reality is not quite so certain. There are gaps, inconsistencies, improbabilities, wishful thinking… lots

I’m a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell’s books. He is skilled at presenting complex topics based on solid research in an accessible and engaging way. I’ve just finished reading his latest book “Talking to Strangers” and so much of it is relevant to how we engage in conflict. We tend to think we know others