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Explore how unresolved conflict quietly erodes teams and discover practical frameworks for addressing it early through clear and constructive leadership practices in this 32-minute conference talk. Examine the concept of "conflict debt" - the unspoken tension, silent resentment, and avoided difficult decisions that accumulate interest over time in the form of bottlenecks, misalignment, and team dysfunction. Learn to recognize how conflict debt manifests in technical and cross-functional teams, understand how unresolved issues silently slow down delivery, trust, and morale, and identify what prevents leaders from addressing conflict directly. Discover practical language and frameworks for navigating conflict constructively without fear, and gain strategies for creating a culture that normalizes healthy conflict without descending into dysfunction. Drawing from Liane Davey's conflict debt concept and years of engineering leadership experience, this presentation provides essential tools for leaders who have experienced meetings where true agreement wasn't reached or where silence was mistaken for consensus.
