Kindling Trust & Navigating Conflict in Tumultuous Times

This training will equip participants with the awareness, skills, and tools needed to navigate conflict with clarity and compassion while actively cultivating trust within their teams, organizations and communities.

In today’s high-pressure and rapidly changing environments, many leaders find themselves navigating increasing tension—across teams, with stakeholders and within communities. Left unaddressed, these tensions can erode trust, fragment relationships, and pull energy away from mission-critical work. Yet conflict, when approached with intention and skill, can become a powerful catalyst for connection, innovation and alignment. Leaders play a critical role not in forcing trust, but in creating the conditions where it can be built, maintained and repaired over time.

This interactive, experiential workshop invites leaders to explore the inner and interpersonal dynamics that shape how they show up in moments of stress and conflict. Participants will engage in reflection, dialogue, and practice to build somatic awareness, strengthen communication patterns and deepen their capacity for relational leadership. By grounding learning in real-world scenarios, leaders will leave with practical tools and personalized strategies to foster trust, navigate conflict constructively and sustain healthy, high-functioning teams.

What you will leave with:

• increased capacity to regulate stress responses and remain grounded in high-stakes interactions
• greater confidence in navigating conflict with reduced escalation and stronger relational outcomes
• practical tools and language frameworks to build, maintain, and repair trust
• a personalized action plan to apply trust-building and conflict navigation strategies in real-world contexts

The Initiative Foundation’s Nonprofit Academy trainings are part of the organization’s mission to serve the people of Central Minnesota. If your organization is located outside our 14-county and two Native nation service area, please contact Nicole Clements regarding participation options.

Presented by: Hallie Pond

Hallie Pond is the founder of Truespace Consulting, a mediator and conflict resiliency trainer with 15+ years of experience across retail, nonprofits, and tech. With a master’s in organizational psychology and advanced certification in conflict resolution from Columbia University, she helps workplaces transform conflict into connection through candid, skillful dialogue. Her Gestalt-based approach emphasizes presence, somatic awareness, and strengths—supporting leaders to communicate with confidence, courage, and care. Known for her warm, intuitive facilitation style, she helps teams align, resolve tension, and thrive. Through coaching and workshops, her clients build stronger communication skills, deeper collaboration, and resilient, joyful teams.

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The Initiative Foundation makes every effort to provide reasonable accommodations in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA) and Minnesota State Board Policy 1B.4. Members of the general public who require accommodations to attend a public event should complete this form at least 10 business days prior to an event when practical.