Here is a question worth asking before the next major initiative hits your organization:
When the deadline arrives, will your organization move faster—or will it meet more often?
Most executives recognize the pattern immediately: a mandate emerges that demands coordination across multiple functions, and while the objective is important, the deadline real and everyone agrees the work must get done, it stalls.
Over the years, I have learned that the gap between a good idea and real innovation is rarely brilliance. It is support. It is the everyday, unglamorous choices teammates make to help each other think wider, take smaller risks, stay steady when resistance shows up, and tell the story in a way people can hear.
So what does that support actually look like?
Most days, I walk out of my office proud, energized by the integrity, courage, and human-centered leadership my clients demonstrate. But then… there are days that leave me shaking my head, frustrated and frankly stunned.
