#174: Buster Benson – Why Are We Yelling

Conflict is becoming an ever more present reality in our lives, yet most of us try desperately to avoid it. The widening gap between the world in which we live and our lack of ability to navigate conflict, is showing up in our personal and professional spaces. Given our discomfort and conflict avoidance bend, how do we address this? Is there a way back? Can we face conflict head on, hash it out and be stronger for it?

Our guest this week, Buster Benson, believes navigating conflict is an achievable “meta-skill” that allows us to integrate the differences we encounter in the world. In his book, Why Are We Yelling?, Buster reveals that conflict can serve as a valuable tool, that when channeled properly can be leveraged to deepen our relationships, strengthen our problem-solving skills and stimulate our creativity.

As the mastermind behind highly successful teams at Amazon, Twitter, and Slack, Buster Benson spent decades leaning into and facilitating difficult conversations in high stress environments. Buster exposes the psychological underpinnings of awkward, unproductive conflict and the critical habits anyone can learn to avoid it.

Buster Benson is an entrepreneur and a former product leader at Amazon, Twitter, Slack, and Patreon. This is his first book.

For a complete transcript and links from this episode, please visit https://whitneyjohnson.com/buster-benson.