We’ve all worked at that place where the air felt thick. Or so-and-so wouldn’t talk to so-and-so. How does that environment come to be, and how do we influence our organization to embrace a culture of feedback?
Unspoken tension. Silent resentment. That decision you let slide, even though it was the wrong one. These aren’t just interpersonal hiccups—they’re conflict debt, and over time, they accrue interest in the form of bottlenecks, misalignment, and team dysfunction.
In this talk, I’ll make the case for addressing conflict early and often – not as a side skill, but as a core leadership competency. Drawing from Liane Davey’s concept of conflict debt and years of firsthand engineering leadership experience, I’ll explore how avoiding hard conversations quietly erodes team trust and productivity. More importantly, I’ll offer frameworks and practical language for navigating conflict directly, constructively, and without fear.
If you’ve ever walked out of a meeting thinking, “We didn’t really agree on that,” or let silence pass as consensus – this talk is for you.
Key takeaways
- What is conflict debt, and how does it show up in technical and cross-functional teams?
- How does unresolved conflict silently slow down delivery, trust, and morale over time?
- What stops us from addressing conflict directly—and how can we move through that discomfort?
- How can we create a culture that normalizes healthy conflict without descending into dysfunction?
