This thread is for discussing the article L3 Qualities - Stress and Conflict Management by Sean Catanese

Would it be acceptable to intervene in the Passive approach scenario?

I'm assuming you mean the one where a player is venting frustration.

I'll reiterate that the passive approach is usually terrible and only
rarely effective. It's fine to intervene there, but how you do it matters.

If you're expressing empathy and offering to help, sure. Often you can be
that customer service all star who resolves it and if it works, that's
awesome.

However, if you're trying to do one of these things, you may just end up
escalating the conflict instead:

1. Trying to correct something that's been misstated by the aggrieved
player. (Yes, even if the player venting is simply wrong. Wait for the
frustration to pass before correcting them, and even then be nice about it.
Also, I'm more likely to do that for misconceptions about rules, not
personalities or character judgements, however misguided.)

2. Defensively/protectively addressing a perception about a judge with whom
they've just had a rough interaction.

If you are the judge they are unhappy with, and they haven't moved on from
that point of anger/frustration yet, give them the space to move on
emotionally before re-engaging.

- Sean

You’re walking past a table and overhear Aaron and Bob in a match discussing whether or not a combat trick works as Aaron believes it does. Aaron seems to be winning the argument because Bob seems confused. Bob looks up to you with a questioning look on his face, but you break eye contact quickly and move on to push in chairs down the row. Bob assumes you heard the exchange. He never formally called for a Judge. He also assumes if you had seen a problem, you would have intervened. He accepts Aaron’s version of how the situation resolves and continues the game.

Would intervening here rather than continuing on be acceptable because the player acknowledged you even though he didn't ask for a judge verbally?

If you feel that a player may need some assistance but doesn't ask for it (for any reason: shyness, inconfort, ignorance, etc.), approaching him and asking if you can help is never a bad idea. At worst he'll clarify that he's not looking for some help, and at best you just provided a good customer service.

Just make sure that the player indeed need your service before stepping in the game, and let him ask the rules questions himself in his own words, so you're not perceived as disrupting.

That clears it up, thank you.