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.
“Speak Up, Work It Out”: Why Teaching Students to Mediate Their Own Conflicts Is the Most Underused Leadership Strategy in K-8 Schools
The most underused conflict resource in a K-8 school is already in the building. It is the students, and peer mediation teaches them to use it well.
Pause, Pivot, Script: A Leader's Reset for Hard Conversations
You get about three seconds to decide what happens next when someone stops you with a complaint. Most leaders never got taught what to do in that window, so they improvise, and improvising tends to land on defend, deflect, or vague reassurance. Here's the three-part reset that works instead.
Bruce publishes regularly on conflict, leadership, and governance through the Conflict in Plain English series on Substack. Subscribe below to receive new pieces directly.