draws essential lessons on how to disagree well from world-class experts: interrogators, hostage negotiators, divorce mediators, diplomats, and addiction counselors. It tells inspiring stories of productive disagreements, from the invention of the airplane to the success of The Rolling Stones, and combines them with fascinating insights from the science of human communication.
Conflicted | Ian Leslie and Russ Roberts
We don’t have a good word for engaging in a non-hostile disagreement with the shared aim of moving the participants towards a new understanding, better decision or new idea.
- Debate implies a competition with winners and losers.
- Argument comes tinged with animosity.
- Dialogue is too bland.
- Dialectic is too obscure.
We talk about argument as if it is war: we say that her claims are indefensible, that he attacked the weakest point of my thesis, that I demolished his argument, that she shot down my idea .
We see the person we are arguing with as an enemy who must be defeated.
It's possible though to experience argument, very differently.
Instead of finding it stressful and unpleasant, we can find it stimulating and enjoyable.
Instead of driving us apart, it could draw us together.
Resources
- Aeon: A good scrap
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- Disagree Constructively How to disagree well
- Ian Leslie on Conflicted Ian Leslie (2021)
- Productive Disagreement Depends on How People Feel About Each Other Ian Leslie
- The Argumentative Theory of Human Reason We did not evolve to reason individually but to reason socially
- We Don’t Have a Good Word for Engaging in a Non-hostile Disagreement Ian Leslie
Quotations: Ian Leslie (2)
Videos: Ian Leslie (1)
Image Credits: Midjourney
(Public Domain)In-person, 7–11 September 2026, Warbrook House, Hampshire, UK
We are living and working in conditions of uncertainty, complexity, and rapid change. Many leadership approaches still rely on control, expertise, and tools that no longer fit the realities people face.
This week-long immersive workshop brings people together to practise Conversational Leadership as a shared, lived experience. It is not a training course but a space to slow down, think together, and explore how leadership emerges through dialogue, responsibility, and real engagement.