Dear Change Leader,
What do you do when you can no longer take anything for granted? When familiar patterns and relationships are disrupted? When routines and well-established processes are no longer sufficient to meet the needs of the moment?
I believe we’re facing exactly such a moment today.
The political and regulatory environment is unstable. The economy is under stress. The legal landscape is strained. Relationships and partnerships are in question.
All of this means your organization is currently moving through unfamiliar territory, where the next major risk might emerge from any direction, at any moment.
What can you do, as a leader, to ensure your organization will come through this maelstrom intact?
The Harsh Reality
I’ve been speaking with leaders like you in recent weeks, and the description above comes directly from these conversations.
Let’s face some uncomfortable truths:
- Your organization is not going to emerge unscathed.
- Some organizations — potentially even yours — will not survive.
- The environment you’ll face on the far side will look very different from the one you navigated just months ago.
This is not a time to deny reality. This is a moment when you may need to let go of cherished traditions and routines, stepping into the unknown of leading through chaos and confusion.
As a leader, you must adopt a different approach to how you show up and influence your organization’s response.
In my previous newsletter describing the five domains of leadership (identified by Dave Snowden’s Cynefin sense-making framework), I highlighted the Chaotic and Confused domains. These two domains share a sense of being immersed in situations that defy understanding, disrupt the familiar, and call for responses that can create sufficient stability to allow you time for more considered actions.
Let’s examine what this means in practice.
Organizational Triage
When moving through a storm, the last thing you want is to wait for calm before deciding how to act. There’s a high risk that what remains might be insufficient to allow you to carry on with “business as usual” — and a good chance you won’t even be able to resume normal operations with the resources still at hand.
Effective change leaders establish clear priorities to guide their approach when faced with tough decisions. When you don’t yet know how severe the current storm is, nor how long it will last, here are three guiding priorities, in sequence, that you should consider:
1. Focus on Your Mission
Your purpose matters now more than ever, and there will likely be an even greater need for it as we move through, and beyond, the current situation.
- Make decisions that place your mission and those who benefit from it at the center.
- Revisit your core purpose and be willing to shed activities that don’t directly serve it.
- Communicate this focus clearly to stakeholders, partners, and staff.
2. Secure the Organization
If the mission matters, then your organization will be needed now and into the future.
- Identify and protect the essential elements of who you are and how you work.
- Secure the core knowledge, experience, expertise, and relationships that will permit rebuilding.
- Preserve financial resources by quickly eliminating non-essential spending.
- Document critical processes and knowledge to ensure continuity.
3. Tend to Your Staff
The uncomfortable truth is that the people working for you today may not be the same people who will rebuild and position the organization to meet future challenges.
- Communicate your guiding priorities with transparency and respect.
- Make clear that, as the leader, you have a primary responsibility to the organization’s mission.
- If staff reductions become necessary, act early when you may still have resources to allow for a respectful transition.
- Support remaining team members with clear direction and emotional bandwidth for the inevitable stress they’re experiencing.
Three Practices for the Week Ahead
- Conduct a Mission-Critical Assessment: Gather your leadership team for a 90-minute session to identify which activities are truly essential to your mission and which could be paused or eliminated. Be ruthless in your evaluation — this isn’t the time for “nice to haves.”
- Create a Knowledge Continuity Map: Identify the 3-5 most critical knowledge areas or relationships your organization depends on. For each, document: Who holds this knowledge? Is it adequately documented? What would happen if this person/team were no longer available? Develop immediate action steps to reduce these vulnerabilities.
- Hold a Transparency Town Hall: Schedule a meeting with your full staff where you acknowledge the current reality, share your prioritization framework, and answer questions honestly. Don’t promise what you can’t deliver, but do commit to continued transparent communication as the situation evolves.
Navigating Forward
Leadership in turbulent times isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about creating enough stability to enable thoughtful responses rather than panicked reactions. By focusing first on mission, then organizational continuity, and then staff wellbeing — in that order — you’ll make decisions aligned with long-term sustainability.
Remember, your team is watching not just what you decide, but how you decide. Even painful choices, when made with clear principles and communicated with respect, build the foundation for whatever comes next.
Until next time,
Join Me At These Upcoming Events!
April 9, 2025: “Psychological Safety for Leaders and Coaches”
What happens when people don’t feel safe to express themselves at work? Miscommunication, missed opportunities, and a whole lot of untapped potential! But when psychological safety is in place, people feel empowered to speak up, share bold ideas, and take smart risks — all without fear of judgment.
As a leader, you play a vital role in coaching your staff to cultivate these environments while also ensuring people feel safe to open up and grow.
Join me as we explore three game-changing plays from The Psychological Safety Playbook that are incredibly impactful in these coaching contexts. You’ll walk away with practical tools to help leaders create spaces where diverse perspectives thrive while deepening trust and openness in your coaching relationships.
What You’ll Learn:
- Three essential psychological safety plays – Communicate Courageously, Master the Art of Listening, and Manage Your Emotions
- Practical strategies to help leaders create safer, more inclusive teams
- Techniques to build trust and authenticity** in your coaching sessions
- Methods to seamlessly incorporate psychological safety** into your coaching practice
Come ready for insightful conversation, hands-on learning, and a few “aha!” moments! Let’s explore how we can empower others (and ourselves!) by fostering environments where everyone feels safe to speak, grow, and thrive.
EFFECTIVE CHANGE RESULTS FROM INTENTIONAL LEADERSHIP
We’re a leadership and organization development consultancy. My team and I work with leaders like you to prepare for and lead successful change processes.
Here’s why our clients call us:
- Leadership Coaching: I support leaders as they navigate transitions into new roles or expanded responsibilities.
- Group Coaching and Learning Programs: Bringing groups of leaders together, I facilitate learning experiences and months-long programs that equip people to be effective change leaders.
- Effective Teams and Stronger Organizations: I work with leaders and their teams with tailored processes that increase their effectiveness, building layers of aligned teams that transform organizations.