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Liane Davey

Overwhelm & Conflict Management for Teams & Their Leaders

The hardest part of work isn’t the work.

The teamwork doctor Liane Davey has diagnosed why smart, capable teams still can’t get out of their own way. She named it thoughtload, and hands individuals and leaders the prescription. Author of Thoughtload, and New York Times bestsellers You First and The Good Fight, Liane is praised by Daniel H. Pink and Harvard Business School’s Frances Frei.

Signature talks

What’s breaking your team isn’t the workload; it’s the thoughtload—the constant mental tabs, emotional reactivity, and depleted energy that leave people unfocused, overwhelmed, and running on fumes. In this session, I reframe what’s really driving burnout and walk leaders through the three forces of modern thoughtload. They’ll learn how to help their teams regain focus, manage emotional triggers, and tap into renewable energy instead of draining what little they have left.
Change isn’t a wave anymore: it’s the water we’re all swimming in. No finish lines, no breathers, no “back to normal.” Even your strongest people are fraying under the constant swirl of shifting priorities and rising expectations. In this session, I show leaders how to create focus and calm in the chaos, process emotions before they turn into drama, and tap into energy sources that don’t burn them out.
Your people do great work inside their own functions, but the moment they have to work across them, things fall apart. The problem isn’t the people; it’s the setup. In this keynote, I unpack why traditional fixes fail and what actually gets teams rowing in the same direction. Leaders learn how to align on goals, build trust through smart prioritization, dial up healthy tension, reduce toxic friction, and make collaboration work at scale.
If your team is avoiding conflict, they’re avoiding the very conversations that move work forward. In today’s fast-changing environment, productive conflict is a competitive advantage. This keynote shows leaders how to treat tension as data, surface issues before they blow up, and use disagreement to drive sharper thinking and stronger relationships. It’s a practical path to replacing avoidance with accountability, clarity, and real progress.
Your managers are trying to protect their teams and deliver results, and many feel forced to choose one over the other. They don’t need to, though. In this session, I show leaders how accountability and empathy work together when you do them right. We cover how to set expectations that land, give feedback people can hear, and use consequences that support growth rather than trigger defensiveness. The goal: performance that rises, stress that doesn’t, and teams that trust the process.

Liane Davey

The hardest part of work isn’t the work.

The hardest part of work isn’t the work.

The teamwork doctor Liane Davey has diagnosed why smart, capable teams still can’t get out of their own way. She named it thoughtload, and hands individuals and leaders the prescription. Author of Thoughtload, and New York Times bestsellers You First and The Good Fight, Liane is praised by Daniel H. Pink and Harvard Business School’s Frances Frei.

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Liane's Signature Keynotes

Invisible Overload

What’s breaking your team isn’t the workload; it’s the thoughtload—the constant mental tabs, emotional reactivity, and depleted energy that leave people unfocused, overwhelmed, and running on fumes. In this session, I reframe what’s really driving burnout and walk leaders through the three forces of modern thoughtload. They’ll learn how to help their teams regain focus, manage emotional triggers, and tap into renewable energy instead of draining what little they have left.

Change Has Changed

Change isn’t a wave anymore: it’s the water we’re all swimming in. No finish lines, no breathers, no “back to normal.” Even your strongest people are fraying under the constant swirl of shifting priorities and rising expectations. In this session, I show leaders how to create focus and calm in the chaos, process emotions before they turn into drama, and tap into energy sources that don’t burn them out.

Cracking the Code

Your people do great work inside their own functions, but the moment they have to work across them, things fall apart. The problem isn’t the people; it’s the setup. In this keynote, I unpack why traditional fixes fail and what actually gets teams rowing in the same direction. Leaders learn how to align on goals, build trust through smart prioritization, dial up healthy tension, reduce toxic friction, and make collaboration work at scale.

The Good Fight

If your team is avoiding conflict, they’re avoiding the very conversations that move work forward. In today’s fast-changing environment, productive conflict is a competitive advantage. This keynote shows leaders how to treat tension as data, surface issues before they blow up, and use disagreement to drive sharper thinking and stronger relationships. It’s a practical path to replacing avoidance with accountability, clarity, and real progress.