by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Relationships
It is 4:30 p.m. on a Thursday. You have been in meetings since 8 a.m. An email from a colleague lands in your inbox, questioning a decision you made last week. You read it once and feel your jaw tighten. You start typing a reply. Pause for a moment. That email would...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership
I often see two different types of leaders. The first apologizes for everything. A missed deadline. A vendor’s mistake. The weather. “Sorry” becomes a verbal tic, offered so often it stops meaning anything. The second never apologizes at all. Something goes wrong and...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership
People disappoint us. They make mistakes, carry blind spots, and cause harm, sometimes without knowing it, sometimes knowing it very well. Most of us respond by defaulting to one of two positions: we absorb it to preserve the relationship, or we harden against it to...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership
Reflections from the Big Thinking Summit, Edmonton, June 2026 From June 9 to 11, 2026, I had the pleasure of attending and presenting at the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences’ Big Thinking Summit in Edmonton. It was three days of conversation across...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Organizational Conflict
You can feel it immediately. The tension is palpable, but no one is saying anything about it. Maybe it’s been building for months. A slow accumulation of unspoken grievances, competing priorities, and bruised egos. Maybe it erupted suddenly. Either way, the conflict...
