I just finished Brené Brown’s new book, Strong Ground, and it’s filled with so many nuggets of insight, frameworks, and pure wisdom. My copy of the book is marked up and filled with tabs for me to revisit and digest more fully. It’s the kind of book that burrows deep into your heart and mind, reshaping how you see the world as both a People leader and a human being.
There are so many concepts I want to dig deeper into over the next few weeks, but one key takeaway has really stayed with me:
to do this work well, we have to slow down enough to sit with complexity.
The Slow Work of Thinking
Part of the hard work required to not just survive this moment—but truly thrive through it—comes from a slower, more deliberate kind of effort. We need to sit, read, think, debate, explore, and wrestle with the big challenges we face in our workplaces.
As an operator, I’ve always had a bias toward action. When I see a problem, I want to fix it. But what I’m learning (and what Brené reinforces) is that sometimes not acting—at least not immediately—is the most important kind of action we can take.
We have to get comfortable with the fact that many of the challenges we face don’t have simple or clean solutions. There’s no single initiative, system, or program that will suddenly unlock the future we envision. The work ahead is complex, messy, and hard—and it demands intention, courage, and vulnerability to navigate.
The Courage to Stay in It
Strong Ground doesn’t shy away from this truth, and neither should we. The invitation is to stay in the discomfort long enough to find clarity and direction.
Doing this work well asks us to rethink how we approach our roles, our teams, our companies, and even our families. It’s both overwhelming and exciting. Through this process, we can begin to challenge the status quo that holds us (and our organizations) back.
By giving ourselves the space to slow down and think deeply, we can untangle complexity and identify the meaningful actions that truly move us forward. And in that process, we find something grounding: the understanding that small, intentional steps can drive the kind of transformative, sustainable change we need to thrive in the future.
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