According to the source, for a conflict to exist, a third party has to be present in it and stay unknown. In a business that is usually someone who passed information between the sides, so a repair conversation works when it deals with who said what to whom and leaves aside who is to blame.

The law that is hard to believe

The booklet admits this law is hard to believe until you check it. The law it takes from the source says that in every single quarrel a third party is present and unknown.

That third party looks entirely innocent. According to the source he is usually a bystander nobody suspects, who sounds sensible and says he had no part in it, yet he is the one who brought the conflict into being in the first place.

In a small business this sounds a little exaggerated, until you look at who was around. The employee who told you what the client said about you. The competitor who heard something and passed it on. The family member who advises your supplier. None of them quarrels with you. All they do is pass things along.

In the booklet's diagram, the two sides who are quarrelling stand at the ends and the carrier sits in the middle. Nobody counts him as a party to the conflict, not even he himself, and that is why nobody looks for him.

Suppose two employees who had been at odds for two months. It emerged that a third employee had been telling each what the other said about him. When that came to light, the quarrel ended within a day.

Or an owner and a supplier who grew cold toward each other. In the middle was an intermediary who handed each of them a slightly different version of the timings.

When a client quarrels with a business

This is the case that touches a business most. According to the source, a quarrel between a single person and an organisation is almost always caused by one third person or one third group. The way out is for the organisation and the person to meet and show each other everything each of them was told, so that the third party is isolated.

So instead of arguing about who is right, you find out what each side was told, and by whom. In most cases it turns out that both sides acted on two different versions that neither of them ever checked.

Suppose a client who complained about what they told her at the office. The owner asked who had said what, and the source was an intern who no longer works there. Both of them had acted on wrong information.

Or a garage owner and a client who quarrelled over the warranty on a repair. Both quoted what was said on the phone, and when they checked, it had been said to two different people on two different dates.

What a repair conversation should be about

Here the booklet explains why most repair conversations fail. According to the source, such meetings tend to fill up with mutual accusations, terms and grievances, and to succeed they have to deal with people alone.

In plain terms, the conversation is about who said what to whom. What happened, and whose fault it was, belongs outside it. The moment it slides into accusations, it is a quarrel again.

The source closes the subject with a promise: every conflict can be resolved, unless the people who truly started it stay hidden.

Suppose a conversation between two partners that focused on what each of them had heard, and from whom. Within a short time it became clear that both had received the information from the same person.

The reverse case: the same conversation, opened with a suggestion to talk about what happened in the project. An hour of accusations, and no solution.

What happens if you do nothing

Here the booklet sums itself up, again from the source. If none of this happens, then in time all the reality built between the two people will vanish, and both of them will suffer in their overall ability to agree, to communicate and to feel affinity.

So the price is higher than it looks. Both sides come out less ready for their next relationship, and every break that is not closed makes the one after it more expensive.

Suppose an owner who got burned by a partner once, and has worked alone since, declining every offer to cooperate. Years later, that old break still charges him a price.

Or a client let down by one supplier, who now asks every supplier she meets for a detailed contract. The hurt made her careful, and the next supplier in line pays for that care.

What the booklet adds

This chapter of the booklet ends with two summarising exercises: a spot-it exercise and a do-it exercise. After it comes a practice and application section with four exercises that take one break from its identification to its closure, and a glossary of the booklet's terms.

An open break moves on from the place where it formed, and charges a price on the next relationship as well.

The booklet is general knowledge about communication, not legal advice for a business dispute. The repair also depends on the other side.