When the Ground Shifts: Thoughts on How to Lead, Adapt, and Thrive in Chaos

There’s a moment in every major shift - whether personal, professional, or societal - when you feel like you’ve lost your footing. Like the ground you built everything on suddenly shifted, you’re standing there, disoriented, trying to make sense of it. That’s where I am right now.

I’ve spent the last week watching events unfold, one after the other, that remind me how fragile and volatile the world can be. I’ve been in meetings about hopeful projects that could bring people together, but I’ve also seen symbols of hate reappear in my City in ways I naively thought were long gone. And in the middle of it all, I'm struggling with the contradiction of movement.

The world does not stop for grief. The economy does not pause for reflection. Deadlines still approach. Meetings still happen. The show, as they say, must go on. It's a sad mantra that keeps popping up in my head. I would rather have something more soothing, but no, it's that good old cliche that pops up - the show must go on. What would Hugh Jackman do!?

I’ve always believed in embracing change and seeing disruption as an opportunity. I’ve built a life around the idea that work should not be separate from meaning and that what I do and who I am should be one and the same. But today, I feel the weight of the kind of disruption that doesn’t inspire - it unsettles.

I know many of you feel it too.

There’s a collective exhaustion in the air. A sense that we are all being pulled along by forces larger than ourselves and making decisions in an atmosphere of uncertainty (I know there's a larger force, but again, this feels different). Some of you are facing layoffs, watching budgets shrink, and seeing organizations struggle to justify their own existence in an increasingly unpredictable world. Others are watching social and political tensions rise, wondering what it all means for the communities you serve, for the people you love.

And yet, here we are. Moving forward. Because what else is there to do besides keep moving and thinking? In thinking these days, these themes have been consistent for me:

The Illusion of Stability

One of the hardest lessons I’ve learned (In ways you cannot imagine), AND, I keep relearning - is that stability is often an illusion. The institutions we trust, the systems we depend on, the rhythms we build our lives around - they all exist on borrowed time. Not because they are inherently weak, but because permanence is a myth - hear me out....

Think about the moments that have shaped your life the most. Were they the times when everything went according to plan? Or were they the moments when things fell apart, forcing you to rethink, rebuild, and ultimately grow? (Hopefully).

Businesses that last don’t last because they avoid change, they last because they embrace it. Leaders who succeed don’t do so by maintaining the status quo but by understanding that reinvention is not a crisis - it’s a necessity. We can argue on the whys and wherefores, but that fundamental truth remains.

And yet, even knowing this doesn’t make disruption any easier to bear, but I find a weird cold comfort in the thought.

How to Move Forward When You Don’t Feel Ready

So, how do we keep going when we don’t feel prepared for what’s next? How do we lead when we, ourselves, are struggling to make sense of things? This post is not the usual mission-driven tips and tools, Digital for the Rest of Us post, but I needed to purge these feelings and thoughts before I, too, can declare - the show must go on.

Here are five ideas I think I have drilled down - not quick fixes, not strategies, but ways of thinking that might help you and me navigate the uncertainty of right now:

1. The World is Not Getting Worse - It’s Getting More Honest

It’s easy to believe that things are falling apart and that we’re heading toward inevitable collapse. But what if we’re not? What if what we’re experiencing is not decline but exposure? The truths that were once hidden are now visible. The injustices that were tolerated are now undeniable. The complacency that once shielded us is no longer an option.

This is painful, yes. But it’s also necessary. Because only in truth can we build something better. Only when we see what we are dealing with can we strategize effectively. I'm thinking here of the Luther Vandross song, Buy me a Rose (If you don't know it, check out the lyrics on Google).

2. Disruption is Not the End, It’s a Transition

I sometimes find solace in remembering that every major shift in history has felt, at the time, like the end of something to half the people. But what we call an ending is often just the messy middle of something new.

The organizations struggling now may be the ones that redefine industries later. The voices being silenced now may be the ones that shape the future. What looks like collapse may, in fact, be transformation. I hope. You will see that this is a real strategy later.

3. You Are Not Your Work, But Your Work is You

For those of us who have built our lives around purpose-driven work, there’s a deep existential fear in watching things unravel. If our work is our identity, then what happens when that work is threatened?

But here’s the truth: While your work is an extension of you, it is not the totality of you. Your value is not tied to a role, a title, or even a mission. You are not important because of what you do. You are important because of who you are. I told a friend that I believe I can thrive anywhere in the world, and she said, "Are you just now realizing this about yourself?". Yes, because this is the first time I have honestly and genuinely thought about an alternative.

4. The Best Leaders Are the Ones Who Stand Still

In moments of chaos, the instinct is to act—to do something, anything, to regain control. But true leadership doesn’t come from those who react in a frenzy, it comes from those who pause long enough to understand.

Not to toot my own horn (or maybe to - because I'm actually proud about this part of me), but I remember an incident at an event I was managing where an elevator accidentally caught a child. Panic erupted. My colleagues ran in all directions, shouting, trying to help but ultimately adding to the confusion. A crowd gathered, tension rising.

And me? I stood still, irritated - not by the emergency but by its commotion. Instead of joining the chaos, I assessed the situation, and asked one man to call an ambulance.

Later, the child’s parent approached me. They worked in crisis management and told me how deeply grateful they were that, in a sea of panic, there was one person who didn’t fuss but went straight to the heart of the matter.

Leadership in crisis isn’t about being the loudest or the busiest. It’s about being the clearest.

The best leaders don’t have all the answers. What they have is the ability to listen, to make space, and to hold steady when others cannot.

5. Hope is a Strategy

"How's that hopey, changey treating ya?" asked one car bumper months into Obama's presidency. I also once heard someone say, "Hope is not a strategy." Cynicism is easy. Hope requires effort. And yet, history has always been shaped by those who believed in something better, even when all evidence suggested otherwise. Dare I say no one has more Hope than Trump?

Hope is not naivety. It is a discipline. It is a choice to build when destruction seems easier, to connect when division feels inevitable, to continue when stopping feels justified.

I don’t have a neat conclusion to this. I don’t have a clear resolution that makes everything feel better. What I do know is that we are living through something that will be remembered - not as the end of an era, but as the beginning of whatever comes next.

We are tired, but we are still here.

We are uncertain, but we are still moving.

The show must go on. Not because we have no choice, but because what we build next will be shaped by what we choose to do now.

So, choose wisely. And keep going.

There. That’s my piece - and my peace. Next week, I promise I’ll return to a more on-brand Digital for the Rest of Us topic. Unless, of course, life throws another plot twist. Stay tuned.