How to Untie a Balloon: A Negotiator's Guide to Avoid Popping Under Pressure (Conflict Resolution Strategies, Difficult Conversations)

Avoid Popping Under Pressure

Pressure management is the key to effective leadership, conflict resolution, and staying composed when life feels like it's stretching you to the limit. In How to Untie a Balloon, former hostage negotiator and founder of Conflictish(R) Ryan Dunlap provides practical strategies for managing stress, mastering conflict management, and building emotional resilience.

Dunlap reveals the hidden impact of pressure on our thoughts, decisions, and actions. Using the analogy of a balloon, he demonstrates how unchecked stress, unresolved tension, and mismanaged conflict can lead us to self-destructive behaviors--making us dangerous to ourselves and those around us.

This book offers a practical roadmap to mastering conflict resolution for adults and implementing effective conflict reduction strategies. Through real-world narratives and the F.I.R.S.T. Steps framework, Dunlap simplifies complex conflicts into manageable components: Feelings, Interests, Relationships, Situation, and Toll. These strategies for resolving conflict enhance your self-awareness and empower you with the conflict management techniques needed to lead effectively in high-pressure environments.

Through each step of the F.I.R.S.T. Steps framework, you'll learn how to:

• Regain control over your emotions--so you don't react in ways that cost you respect and influence.


• Pinpoint what really matters--separating surface frustrations from deeper issues driving your stress.


• Strengthen your relationships--so conflict doesn't leave you bitter, burned out, or alone.


• Navigate high-stakes situations with confidence--no more second-guessing or spiraling under pressure.


• Recognize and release built-up tension--effectively managing stress through practical conflict management techniques.

How to Untie a Balloon delivers proven methods for conflict resolution, negotiation, and personal development. Master strategies for managing workplace conflict, maintaining emotional control, and enhancing your ability to resolve conflicts effectively in both personal and professional settings.

If you liked The Anatomy of Peace, Conflict Resolution Playbook, or Powerful Phrases for Dealing with Workplace Conflict, then you'll love How to Untie a Balloon.

Author: Ryan Dunlap
Publisher: Mango
Published: 05/13/2025
Pages: 218
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.40lbs
Size: 8.10h x 4.90w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9781684817306

About the Author
Dunlap, Ryan: - With more than 20 years of combined law enforcement, ministry, and executive leadership experience, Ryan Dunlap is an internationally recognized conflict management coach and trainer. He is a Certified Leadership Coach as well as the founder and Chief Conflict Officer at Conflictish, a conflict strategy firm dedicated to helping leaders improve how they lead themselves and others through conflict. He is the creator of The Real Tact Model(R), a custom framework for developing conflict competence. To date, he's coached leaders to build their conflict competency around the globe and in several industries including biotech, government, nonprofit, faith-based, healthcare, pharma, education, food & beverage, and commercial construction, among others. Informing Ryan's conflict expertise is experience as a decorated law enforcement officer. As a former SVU Detective, SWAT Hostage Negotiator, and Crisis Intervention Officer, Ryan has facilitated hundreds of high-stakes interviews, interrogations, and negotiations. He lives in Atlanta.Christian, Kwame: - Kwame Christian is the founder and CEO of the American Negotiation Institute, where he conducts training that helps make difficult conversations easier. Under Kwame's leadership, ANI has coached and trained several Fortune 500 companies on applying the fundamentals of negotiation to corporate success. He's the host of the world's most popular negotiation podcast, Negotiate Anything. The show has over six million downloads and listeners in more than 180 countries. His book, Finding Confidence in Conflict, has helped countless individuals navigate difficult conversations and was inspired by Kwame's popular TEDx Talk of the same name.
Kwame was the recipient of the John Glenn College of Public Affairs Young Alumni Achievement Award in 2020, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law Outstanding Recent Alumnus Award in 2021, and the 2022 Columbus 40 Under 40 Award. He also serves as a business lawyer at Carlile Patchen & Murphy LLP; contributor at Forbes; professor of negotiation for The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, the top-ranked dispute resolution program in the country; and professor of communication and negotiation at the MBA program at Otterbein University. Kwame's proudest achievement is his family. He's married to Dr. Whitney Christian, and they have two lovely sons, Kai and Dominic.