Mindset
People leave believing change is possible, and that disagreement is a sign of a team that cares, not a team that’s failing.
Healthy conflict keynote speaker.
Dean Leak helps leaders and teams disagree well, so the best ideas make it into the room, not the corridor. Over 200 talks for Olympic teams, FTSE 100 companies, governments and global brands.
“100% the most powerful talk I’ve ever attended.”PwC Director
- 200+
- Talks delivered
- 3
- Gold-medal Olympic teams
- 15+ yrs
- Olympic high-performance sport
Trusted by
Your organisation doesn’t have a conflict problem. It has a politeness problem.
Most leaders tell me their teams argue too much. Then I sit in their meetings. Nobody argues at all. Everyone nods, the decision sails through, and the real conversation happens afterwards. In the corridor. On WhatsApp. In the meeting after the meeting.
I call it the Price of Peace: every unsaid doubt, unshared risk and swallowed idea quietly taxes your performance. Artificial harmony looks like alignment. It votes like alignment. It just doesn’t perform like alignment.
And to be fair to your people, they’re not being weak. They’re being kind. They’ve learnt that challenge can cost relationships, so they protect the relationship and quietly spend the performance.
£28.5bnWhat workplace conflict costs UK employers every year, according to Acas
The keynote: healthy conflict and disagreeing well.
Groupthink is an operational risk.
Dean reveals how healthy conflict and human connection transform workplace tension into a competitive advantage for leaders navigating constant change. Every talk is shaped around your audience, your goals and your language.
Leadership
The privileged role leaders play in enabling high performance: priming the room so challenge feels expected, not brave.
Skillset
Simple tools people can practise the very next day, from Speak from the I to the PREP model for raising a point well.
Five ways people handle conflict.
Dean’s Disagreeing Well Diagnostic shows each person their default pattern when a conversation gets difficult. Over 1,000 people have taken it, and teams can take it before a keynote or workshop.
The Avoider
Prefers harmony, avoids confrontation, tends to hold back views.
The Pleaser
Wants everyone to feel good; struggles to challenge or disappoint.
The Debater
Loves ideas, arguments, logic; can overwhelm others.
The Defender
Protects their position, seeks certainty, dislikes ambiguity or challenge.
The Connector
Balances courage, curiosity, and clarity; disagrees well with intent to improve decisions.
Keynotes, workshops and offsites.
Start with a keynote, build the habits in a workshop or series, or take your leadership team away to practise under pressure.
The One Day Workshop
A half day or full day, run like a match day, on the topic your team needs most.
What’s included
Choose your focus
- High performance culture
- Healthy conflict
- Leading through change
- Resilience
- Enterprise thinking
Every workshop includes
- A short discovery call and a team diagnostic before the day
- Content shaped around your team, your goals and your language
- Practical tools people can use the very next day
- Clear team commitments to take back to work
Fee on requestAsk about this
The Healthy Conflict Series
For teams who avoid conflict, and it is costing them trust, decisions and accountability.
What’s included
Everything in the workshop, plus
- A team wide view of your dynamics and conflict patterns
- Deliberate practice that builds conflict fitness
- Live case studies and role plays on your team’s real challenges
- Conflict forums and meeting structures that make healthy conflict a habit
Fee on requestAsk about this
Inside the Friction Lab
An immersive leadership offsite at Bylaugh Hall, for teams making high stakes decisions under pressure.
What’s included
- Co designed around your strategy and the pressures your leaders face
- Custom scenarios, from a hostage negotiation in a secret room to negotiating inside a fictional country
- Structured debriefs that turn pressure into lessons for your real strategic challenges
- Evening sessions built in, from award evenings to guest speakers
- Delivered with Rebecca Cant, former national police training lead for hostage and crisis negotiation
Fee on requestAsk about this
See Dean on stage.
What clients say.
“100% the most powerful talk I’ve ever attended.”
“Fantastic! The energy in the room was buzzing and there was some real practical takeaways!”
“Dean was a truly exceptional speaker.”
“Brilliant. It’s the second time we’ve had Dean back!”
“The best speaker we had in the whole conference!”
Questions organisers ask.
What is healthy conflict?
Healthy conflict is disagreement about ideas, decisions and the work, done with respect and in the room. It is how teams test their thinking, surface risks early and commit to decisions, without damaging trust.
What is Dean Leak’s healthy conflict keynote about?
Dean reveals how healthy conflict and human connection transform workplace tension into a competitive advantage for leaders navigating constant change. Audiences leave with a shift in mindset, a clear view of the role leaders play, and practical tools they can use the next day.
Who is the healthy conflict keynote for?
C-suite leaders, executive leadership teams, whole divisions and functions, departments and their teams, and managers and team leaders.
Can it be a workshop instead of a keynote?
Yes. Dean runs half day and full day workshops in person or virtual, a Healthy Conflict Series of 4 to 6 sessions, and Inside the Friction Lab, an immersive leadership offsite.
Where is Dean Leak based?
Dean Leak Performance is based in Tonbridge, Kent, serving London and the UK, and working worldwide.
How do I book Dean?
Send an enquiry through the form on this page or email dean@deanleak.com. Dean usually replies within one working day.
Keep exploring.
- High performing teamsKeynotes, workshops and consulting to build a high performing team.→
- Find your conflict styleThe free five minute Disagreeing Well Diagnostic.→
- How conflict avoidance quietly erodes cultureWhy harmony ahead of honesty costs excellence.→
- Leading through changeBuild a movement, not a mandate.→
Keynotes. Offsites. Retreats. Workshops.
- Enquire
- A 15-minute call
- Tailored to you
- On the day
Let’s talk.
Keynotes, offsites, retreats and workshops. Formats and fees on request.