The cost of conversations we never have often exceeds the discomfort of having a difficult discussion.

Last month, I watched as a promising product launch collapsed at a tech company I was consulting with. The cause wasn't poor market research or technical failures but something more insidious—six months of misaligned expectations, unspoken concerns, and crucial conversations that were always postponed.

This pattern, which I've observed in both workplace and personal settings, exemplifies what I call "conversational debt." It represents the accumulating cost of crucial conversations we avoid or handle poorly, creating liabilities.

Like financial debt, conversational debt compounds over time, extracting an ever-increasing toll on trust, collaboration, and performance. The longer you wait to address it, the more devastating the consequences.

In........

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