Hold the Conversation
The Psychology of Conflict and Repair
A keynote by Verena Rizg, MN, NP-PHC
“She delivers a poignant message in a way people will listen, and be moved.”
Glynis E. Devine · Chief Empowerment Officer, She-Suite Leaders
It’s fine. Every leader has heard it, and every leader has said it. Most organizations have learned to avoid conflict. Avoided conflict, like a symptom no one investigates, does not disappear because no one names it. Repair begins with seeing what has been injured.
As a clinician, Verena has spent sixteen years seeing how unresolved tension shows up in bodies, relationships, and teams. She draws on the psychology of repair to show why silence is never neutral, why empathy without accountability leaves people seen but unchanged, and how leaders can raise what needs raising, hold the conversation through discomfort, and repair trust while people are still willing to return to the conversation.
Learning outcomes
- Recognize the patterns through which unresolved tension becomes distrust, disengagement, and departure
- Understand why empathy without accountability leaves people seen but unchanged
- Apply the Raise, Hold, Repair approach to difficult conversations
- Prepare to begin a conversation they have been avoiding, using language grounded in care and accountability
The method · Raise, Hold, Repair
Raise — name the observable issue and its impact, without assigning motive. Hold — stay in the conversation as context, disagreement, and emotion emerge. Curiosity with accountability. Repair — establish what requires acknowledgment, what must change, who owns the next action, and how follow-through will occur.
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