Dear Change Leader,
Imagine this scene with me…
It’s a windy day in the forest. Trees sway dramatically as gusts intensify, their rustling growing louder in your ears. Suddenly, one tree—its roots perhaps not as deeply anchored as others—topples onto a power line. An electrical arc sends sparks flying in all directions. In these windy conditions, a fire quickly ignites and races from one tree to another.
Before long, the fire spreads rapidly, fanned by persistent winds, consuming the trees and dry materials carpeting the forest floor.
This scene has, unfortunately, become increasingly common due to climate change and human settlement expansion into wilderness areas.
But what happens after the burn?
If you’ve ever walked through a recently burned landscape, you’ve witnessed something remarkable. The charred terrain transforms surprisingly quickly as spots of vibrant green emerge from the ashes.
Biologists tell us these fires are actually essential features of healthy ecosystems. Fire clears out dense brush and dead vegetation, creating space for new plants to flourish. With greater access to sunlight, the resulting growth can be astonishingly rapid and vigorous, bringing renewed life to the disrupted landscape.
Of course, not everything grows back. Some vegetation doesn’t survive, and the ecosystem that emerges looks different from what came before.
This is the paradox of resilience: renewal requires disruption.
Why Resilience Matters Now
As I look across our social and organizational landscape in the first half of 2025, I see similarly windy, even stormy, conditions. Fires of disruption are breaking out in every sector—political upheavals, economic uncertainty, technological shifts, regulatory changes, and cultural transformations.
These fires are causing substantial damage, and there’s a strong likelihood that more disruption is coming.
We cannot fully insulate ourselves or our organizations from these forces. We will be affected. Rather than expending all our energy trying to prevent the inevitable, we should look at our capacity for resilience—our ability to not just survive these disruptions, but to emerge stronger through them.
Three Dimensions of Resilience
Like a forest ecosystem, resilience in our organizational systems operates at multiple interconnected levels:
- Personal Resilience
This is your individual capacity to reset and reground after shocks. It includes:
- Your physical well-being and energy management
- Mental flexibility and adaptive thinking
- Emotional regulation and self-awareness
- Clarity about personal purpose and values
Strengthening practice: Build a “resilience ritual” that you can deploy after difficult moments—a brief sequence of actions that helps you return to center. This might involve physical movement, controlled breathing, journaling, or connection with a trusted colleague.
- Relational Resilience
This emerges from our connections with others. It includes:
- Psychological safety within your team
- Open communication channels that work under pressure
- Trust that allows for vulnerability and authentic exchange
- Networks of support beyond your immediate group
Strengthening practice: Create a “resilience circle” of 3-5 peers with whom you can share challenges without judgment. Meet regularly to discuss not just problems, but how you’re responding to them—what’s working and what isn’t.
- Organizational Resilience
This resides in your systems, structures, and culture. It includes:
- Operational flexibility and resource buffers
- Decision-making processes that function during disruption
- Distributed leadership and empowerment
- Learning mechanisms that capture insights from challenges
Strengthening practice: Conduct a “resilience audit” of a recent disruption your organization faced. What systems bent without breaking? Which broke but shouldn’t have? What unexpected sources of strength emerged? Use these insights to reinforce your organizational capabilities.
Your Resilience Development Path
This week, I invite you to:
- Assess honestly: Where across these three dimensions do you feel strongest? Where are you most vulnerable?
- Choose deliberately: Select one specific resilience-building practice from each dimension to strengthen over the next month.
- Observe carefully: Notice how disruptions affect you, your team, and your organization. What patterns emerge? Where do you naturally rebound, and where do you struggle?
Remember, like the forest ecosystem, your goal isn’t to prevent all fires—it’s to ensure that when they inevitably come, they clear space for new growth rather than causing catastrophic, irreversible, damage.
The winds of change are blowing hard. Some trees will fall. But with intentional preparation, the renewal that follows may surprise you with its vigor and possibility.
Until next time,
Develop Your Pathfinder Leadership Skills
Are you ready to strengthen your ability to navigate uncertain terrain with confidence?
I’m excited to announce an upcoming program specifically designed for change leaders facing today’s unprecedented challenges. The Pathfinder’s Journey: Leading Through Uncertainty will provide you with practical frameworks, peer support, and expert guidance to help you:
- Develop a keen sense for assessing changing organizational terrain
- Build adaptive decision-making skills for rapidly shifting environments
- Create teams that can respond with agility to unexpected challenges
- Maintain your leadership presence and well-being during prolonged uncertainty
Program details are being finalized, but spaces will be limited.
If you’re curious about this opportunity, please click the button below to join the interest list. There’s no obligation, and you’d like to be among the first to receive information when applications open.
Those on the interest list will also receive a complimentary copy of my article “Leading Like A Gardener” – a practical resource to support your leadership journey.
I look forward to sharing more details soon!
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.