2026 LFDP Conference - Day 3 (May 8)

The 2026 Leadership and Faculty Development Conference (LFDP) concluded with a career development training on “How to Disagree Better.”  Attended by HMS faculty, trainees and staff as well as the Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Health Policy and Leadership alumni fellows, the session explored strategies for effectively understanding, communicating, and constructively debating differing perspectives on important issues.  It emphasized building individual skills as well as building community cultures of constructive disagreement. The participants considered it, “A great training!” with “a lot of takeaways.”

Presenters:

Julia Minson, PhD

Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

Julia Minson is a Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the founder of Disagreeing Better, LLC – a behavioral science consultancy and training firm. She is a decision scientist with research interests in conflict management, negotiations, and judgment and decision making. Her main line of research addresses the “psychology of disagreement” – How do people engage with opinions, values, and judgments that conflict with their own?

Her work examines disagreements around hot-butt on, identity-relevant topics — conflicts around politics, values, and professional and health decision-making. She is interested in simple, scalable interventions to help people become more recepti ve to opposing views of others. Julia teaches courses and workshops on negotiations, decision science, and conflict management.

Her work has been published in top academic and business outlets as well as widely covered by popular media including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. She is the author of How to Disagree Bett er, available through Penguin Random House in March 2026.

Heather Sulejman

Managing Director, Constructive Disagreement Project, Shorenstein Center, Harvard Kennedy School

Heather Sulejman is the Managing Director of The Constructive Disagreement Project at the Harvard Kennedy School and a founding partner of the consulting firm, Disagreeing Better. A trained mediator and consultant with 14 years of industry experience, her work centers onprocess design for effective disagreement, conflict management, and negotiations. Heather focuses on translating research and behavioral science insights into practical, scalable interventions and trainings for partners in education, healthcare, the non-profit sector, and the media. She is particularly interested in the role of technology in scaling and disseminating constructive disagreement training and research.