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...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership
You’ve attended the workshops. You’ve applied the frameworks. Your intentions are good, and your commitment is clear. Yet you still encounter resistance you can’t explain, notice impacts you never intended and manage recurring conflicts. Here is what is missing:...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Power Dynamics
Three Things Every Leader Needs to Know Even the most experienced leaders face moments of powerlessness. It’s a consistent human experience. Hard situations trigger emotional reactions, unsettling our sense of power and agency. When our sense of power is shaken, it...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Organizational Conflict
You know the feeling. Your inbox is a crime scene. The meeting meant to resolve things made everything worse. Two senior people who should be working together have chosen sides, and somehow you’re caught in the middle. The timeline is impossible, the stakes are...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Organizational Conflict
Workplace conflicts turn dirty when fairness breaks down. In dirty fights, people attempt to rewrite history, question your competence, air public dramas, and blame others for failed projects. For those trying to stay professional under the pressure of a dirty fight,...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Performance Issues, Relationships
Your body language speaks before you do. From being aware of your nonverbal signals and managing nervous energy to building trust and cultural awareness, your influence starts and stops with you. The best leaders take control of themselves and understand how they show...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership
A colleague is cutting corners on a client deliverable. Your manager is making promises the team can’t possibly keep. Someone’s expense reports look creative. You know you should say something. You want to say something. You’re trying to do the right...
by Productive Conflict | Anger, Leadership, Organizational Conflict, Performance Issues, Relationships
You’re in the executive team meeting. Your colleague Geri interrupts you again, mid-sentence, to pitch her version of the project timeline. Heat rises in your chest. Your jaw clenches. Before you know it, you’ve dismissed her entire proposal with a curt...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership
The most successful leaders share a common trait: they invest in conflict leadership skills before they’re in crisis mode. Research consistently shows that unresolved workplace conflict costs organizations in terms of lost productivity. In contrast, leaders who...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Organizational Conflict, Relationships
Disagreement quickly escalates to an existential threat. A neighbour’s political button feels like an assault on our values. A colleague’s way of life challenges our way of being. Religious practices that differ from our own appear like an affront to our community...
by Productive Conflict | Performance Issues, Relationships, Setting Boundaries
Microaggressions can slowly chip away at someone’s confidence. Unlike outright aggression, microaggressions are those brief, everyday comments or behaviours that communicate negative messages about who you are or where you belong. What makes microaggressions...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Relationships, Setting Boundaries
Are They Lying to You? The ability to detect deception is a valuable skill. While no method is foolproof, understanding the key indicators of dishonesty can help you make more informed decisions about who is trustworthy. As a mediator, I often notice people lying....
by Productive Conflict | Leadership
(Why Consistency Matters) Your heart sinks. Someone you trusted just acted entirely out of character. They throw you under the bus after months of collaboration, and suddenly become unreachable when you need support. What happened? The trust didn’t just...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Setting Boundaries
(And How to Fix Them) Think of the last three meetings you attended: on a scale of one to ten, how dysfunctional would you rate them (one being not at all dysfunctional, and ten being very dysfunctional)? If you rated your last three meetings anywhere above 5...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Performance Issues
Most people believe they make good decisions. But do they? When I work with leaders and their teams, I often untangle the problem of “people don’t know what they don’t know, but they think they have all they need to know to decide.” It occurs when people fail to...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Organizational Conflict
Conflict as Patterns Conflict is not a hurdle to be overcome, but a pattern to be understood; it is through the examination of these patterns that we unlock the truly creative potential of our challenges. We see conflict in various facets of our lives, from personal...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Organizational Conflict
Conflict is often seen as a negative force; something to be avoided or minimized. However, Jennifer Jones-Patulli, conflict management expert, challenges this perception. She suggests that conflict when engaged constructively, can be a powerful driver for innovation...
