The Work Continues: Five Books for a Team Living Through a Live Grievance
Photo: Gerald England , CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A live grievance or disciplinary investigation is one of the clearest tests of a UK manager's restraint. The ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures sets the procedural expectation, but it does not script the everyday experience of a team that is still expected to deliver. The manager may be a witness, a note-taker, a point of contact or simply the person who has to hold the weekly meeting while colleagues speculate. Confidentiality matters. Fairness matters. So does performance.
The five books below are not a substitute for HR advice, legal advice or the investigation terms of reference. They are useful because they help a manager separate three things that are easily blurred during an investigation: the formal process, the team's emotional weather, and the ordinary work that still has to be done.
1. Difficult Conversations — Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton and Sheila Heen
This book is useful for the conversations a manager cannot avoid but must not overfill. Its central discipline is to separate what happened from the feelings and identity issues surrounding it. During an investigation, that discipline is valuable. A manager does not need to discuss the allegation in order to acknowledge that the team is unsettled.
The practical lesson is bounded language. A short statement such as 'I am not able to discuss the detail, but I can tell you what the process means for this week's work' is more defensible than improvised reassurance. The book helps managers avoid the two common errors: appearing to prejudge the outcome, or withdrawing so completely that the team reads silence as indifference. Its limitation is that it is a communication book, not a procedure manual. Use it for tone and boundaries, not for the investigation itself.
2. Crucial Conversations — Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler
High-stakes conversations tend to produce either silence or speculation. This book's emphasis on safety and mutual purpose is helpful when a team meeting risks becoming a referendum on the case. The manager's task is not to satisfy curiosity about confidential matters. It is to keep the meeting safe enough for work to proceed.
A useful technique is to state the purpose plainly and contrast it with what is not happening: 'We are here to agree next week's cover and handovers; we are not here to discuss the investigation.' The book also supports the separation of observed behaviour from assumed motive, which matters when tensions are running high. The caution is that these techniques can feel manipulative if used to shut down legitimate concerns. They work best when the manager is transparent about what can and cannot be shared.
3. Managing Conflict — David Liddle
Liddle's book is grounded in UK workplace resolution practice and is particularly useful for distinguishing conflict from formal process. A grievance may be a dispute, a relationship breakdown, a management failure or something narrower. The manager's instinct to 'sort it out informally' can be well meant and still wrong while a formal process is live.
The book's value is in helping managers see conflict as a system rather than a single difficult person. That perspective supports practical steps that do not interfere with the investigation: clarifying roles, reducing unnecessary contact between affected parties, and keeping decision rights explicit. It also helps managers think about repair after the process ends. It should not be read as permission to mediate a live formal grievance without HR approval. Its proper use is to inform judgement about what is safe, what is separate and what must wait.
4. The Fearless Organization — Amy C. Edmondson
Psychological safety is often misunderstood as softness. Edmondson's work is more precise: people need to believe they can speak up without punishment. During an investigation, that matters for witnesses and for anyone who fears guilt by association. A team that self-censors may comply outwardly while withholding the information that would help the process conclude fairly.
The manager can protect speaking up through predictable responses: no retribution, no commentary on the case, and clear routes for raising concerns. The book also warns against false reassurance. Telling a team that 'everything will be fine' is not psychologically safe; it is merely optimistic. A better message is that the process will be followed, questions about work will be answered, and confidentiality will be respected. The limitation is that psychological safety does not replace accountability. The investigation still has to determine facts.
5. The Cost of Bad Behavior — Christine Pearson and Christine Porath
Incivility is often treated as a background nuisance until it affects retention, sickness absence and performance. Pearson and Porath set out why low-level rudeness is costly and why managers should treat standards of behaviour as part of ordinary operations. During a live investigation, this is a useful counterweight to the temptation to freeze all management activity until the outcome is known.
The manager can keep basic norms visible: meetings start on time, side conversations about the case are closed down, and no one is excluded from work conversations as a proxy for taking sides. The book gives language for behaviour expectations that are separate from the allegations themselves. Its evidence is broad rather than UK-specific, so it should be read alongside the ACAS framework rather than instead of it.
A reading order for the first fortnight
Start with Difficult Conversations and Crucial Conversations for language and boundaries. Read Managing Conflict before making any decision about informal resolution. Use The Fearless Organization and The Cost of Bad Behavior to protect the team's working climate without turning the manager into an investigator.
A simple one-page team protocol can then be agreed with HR: what can be discussed, who to contact, which work priorities continue, and how confidentiality will be maintained. The test is practical. After a week, are meetings still happening? Are witnesses being treated fairly? Has speculation reduced? Are deadlines still being met? The books help with the manner of management; the procedure still belongs to the formal process.
The work continues. The manager's job is to make sure that it continues without prejudice, performance or the appearance of taking sides.
