It’s natural for us to value safety - we want to keep things comfortable. But true connection requires honesty, repair and sometimes discomfort. In this episode we discuss real experiences of this and practical ways to move beyond politeness.

We explore the signs of superficial safety: over-agreeing, avoiding conflict or hard feedback, lots of check-ins, few challenges and frustration behind the scenes but not talking about it. We examine what powerful connection looks like: disagreement with respect, willingness to name what’s going on, repair when rupture happens and being real, not just being safe. And we consider how we can build more connection by modelling it ourselves as leaders, and being willing to go first and be the change.

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