Mike Hanas spent 40 years in education—teaching Latin, Greek, and ancient history, and serving nearly 20 years as a head of school at Carolina Friends School and San Francisco Friends School. He's the person schools called when things got hard: navigating conflict, addressing historical abuse, facilitating difficult conversations, and building communities grounded in truth-seeking and integrity.

Now, through his consultancy Furthering, Mike helps leaders, teams, and organizations "loosen knots"—creating the conditions for people to have the conversations that matter, even when they're hard.

In this conversation, Mike shares how his mother taught him to create space for others, what he learned from Quaker values like truth-seeking and silent reflection, and why holding the tension between our values and our actions is essential. We als ...