We talk about Resolution. How about Prevention?

Conflict resolution has become the go-to leadership talking point. It gets the workshops, the trainings, the air-time...When resolution is the only focus, two things happen and both of them are problems.

First, it assumes conflict always requires intervention. That someone in "power" has to step in and solve it for others. That people can’t, or won’t work things out on their own. That is an indictment of the culture.

Second, it assumes we’re already too late.That the damage is done and now we’re just managing fallout.

That’s not leadership; That's just damage control.

Resolution Is Reactive. Prevention Is Strategic.

Conflict resolution is what you do when something breaks.Conflict prevention is what you do to keep it from breaking in the first place. The latter is a completely different skill set.

People who only know how to resolve conflict are constantly chasing problems; knowing how to prevent it build environments where most of those problems never happen.

What Is Conflict Prevention?

Conflict prevention is not “keeping the peace” or “avoiding tension.” It’s knowing how tension works and spotting the signals before it escalates too much.

It’s rooted in situational awareness: reading the room, understanding the people in it, and seeing the early signs of friction. It requires you to know how to work with each individual to help them see the benefit of working with the other. You have to be able to phrase and frame that correctly for each.

And it starts with two things:

1. Knowing How People Work and Work Together.

Not everyone communicates the same way. Not everyone handles pressure, feedback, or ambiguity the same way. Personality matters here.

Prevention means understanding how different people operate; not just how they act when things are calm, but how they respond when stakes are high or opinions clash.

It also means knowing how you impact the room. Because if you can’t see your own patterns, you’re part of the volatility.

2. Reading Dynamics Before They Boil Over

Tension is usually quiet: eye contact avoided, decisions delayed, slowed pace of group discussion.

You need to recognize this before it turns into a conversation that needs “resolution.”

To be the leader in these moments: ask better questions; clear up incorrect or hasty assumptions; call out the tension early, privately, not to shame, but to re-align.

Do not try to manage drama; it is a losing endeavour.

If you want to lead in these moments that matter, understand that resolution isn't enough. By the time you're "resolving," something's already gone sideways. You're just managing symptoms.

Prevention is the real work. But it’s invisible, so most people don’t value it. You'll never know how many problems you've avoided by being situationally aware and in-tune with the people around you. It'll be a lot though, trust me.