In Flanders, people call it a moeilijk — difficult — conversation. In the Netherlands, the same conversation gets called lastig — awkward, or a nuisance. Two words, two ends of the same small language area, describing the exact same knot in the stomach before you open the meeting room door. It's a small linguistic difference…

The meeting went smoothly. No raised voices. Everyone nodded at the action item. Two weeks later, nothing has moved, the decision is back on the table, and everyone is saying in the hallway what nobody said in the room. That's not an exception. That's a pattern. And the patterns nobody names are the ones that…