Deepen your understanding of how to build a workplace culture that supports healthy conflict

Are your wishing your workplace could be more effective at dealing with conflict?

When workplace relationships feel unnecessarily stressful and toxic or so nice that people never say what they really think, it is a good idea to be proactive about how people approach conflict. Healthy conflict starts with the culture of your organization or group. What happens when we disagree? What are the channels available to name problems? Are people supported to learn the skills and capacities they need to be able to engage effectively across difference? How can we protect ourselves from external factors that may make our conflicts worse? These are just a few of the questions we can ask to understand the role culture plays in interpersonal dynamics. Big Waves can help you understand your current culture, and identify organizational strategies and practices that your workplace can use to shift your culture to intervene early and support people to disagree better.

With Big Waves

  • Identify Signs of Escalation: Understand the early signs that conflict is escalating, and the types of intervention that help at different stages.

  • Assess Your Culture for Health: Think about your workplace culture and what makes it supportive (or not) of healthy conflict. Identify steps you can take right away to move in that direction.

  • Identify Strategies for Prevention and De-Escalation: Learn why it's better to act quickly and build preventative skills across the organization.

  • Look at the Big Picture and the Details: Look at your conflict culture from five different levels, from the individual to the system, to understand what levers for change are most likely to support culture change in your context.

Join Brook for healthier culture

Brook Thorndycraft

Brook facilitates and nurtures leaders, changemakers, and teams as they navigate the essential questions of organizational life. With over 15 years of experience and a background in mediation (Q.Med), adult education (MA), and Somatic Experiencing (SEP), Brook bridges the gap between systemic change and the human nervous system. Through coaching, training, and custom change processes, she helps organizations transform power dynamics, psychological safety, and conflict into sources of possibility.