Insights on Conflict, Leadership, and Governance
Practical perspectives for leaders navigating high-stakes situations. These pieces draw from three decades of experience in public school governance, executive leadership, and conflict mediation.
After the Resignation: How to Stabilize a Leadership Transition Before It Becomes a Crisis
A superintendent has resigned. The board has 72 hours. Most of them will be spent doing the wrong things -- not out of negligence, but because no one told them what the right things are. This is what stabilization actually looks like.
What 33 Years in Public Schools Taught Me About Conflict That Leadership Courses Never Did
Thirty-three years in public schools taught me a lot about conflict. Almost none of it came from a leadership course. What changed my practice was a shift in how I understood what conflict actually is -- and what it is trying to tell you.
The Call You Dread: What to Do Before a Conflict Escalates to Your Superintendent
Peer-to-peer board dysfunction is one of the most under-addressed governance problems in education. Here is a practical sequence for board presidents who need to address a difficult colleague -- before the problem lands on the superintendent's desk
When the Room Goes Quiet: What Silence at the Board Table Is Actually Telling You
The agenda item lands. Someone offers a tentative opinion and then pauses, scanning the table. A beat passes. The board president moves on. Everyone exhales just enough to suggest relief.
Nothing happened. Or so it seems.
In 33 years of educational leadership -- nine of those as a superintendent -- I have learned to read what silence in a governance room actually means. It almost never means what the people in that room want it to mean.
The Four Things People Actually Need in a Conflict
Most leaders are trying to solve the wrong problem.
When conflict surfaces in a school district, the instinct is to get to resolution as fast as possible. Define the issue. Find a solution. Move on.
But speed without understanding is one of the most reliable ways to make a conflict worse -- or to settle it on paper while it continues to burn underneath. After 33 years in public education and formal civil mediation training, I have learned that most conflicts are not actually about what they appear to be about. And the reason resolution so often fails is that nobody stopped long enough to ask what the people involved actually needed.
Not what they said they wanted. What they needed.
Those are different things.
Preventing Superintendent-Board Conflicts from Becoming Front-Page News
Superintendent-board conflict is among the most destabilizing forces in public education. When governance tension goes unmanaged, it rarely stays behind closed doors. This article argues that the gap between private disagreement and public crisis is not inevitable -- it is a leadership and structural failure that can be anticipated, interrupted, and resolved. Drawing on 33 years in public education and civil mediation training, the author offers a practical framework for boards and superintendents committed to keeping conflict where it belongs: inside the governance process.
The Most Dangerous Narrative in the Boardroom.
Conflict is rarely fueled by facts. It is fueled by the stories we write in the absence of them.
When Staff Conflict Is Not About the Staff
Staff conflict often signals deeper structural misalignment. This piece examines how leadership decisions, role clarity, and governance design shape recurring workplace tension.
Bruce publishes regularly on conflict, leadership, and governance through the Conflict in Plain English series on Substack. Subscribe below to receive new pieces directly.