A piece on creating change and understanding who can help or hinder you. Within every business lie wardens who guard culture. They assess potential change and maintain the status quo. Cultural wardens are often mistaken for change resisters, when in reality their influence runs deeper than that. They hold institutional memory, protect teams from poorly considered change, and preserve efficiency, psychological safety, identity, and trust. We forget that the status quo exists f

A Piece on Navigating Unfamiliar Systems. How often do we feel stupid starting a new job or stepping into something unfamiliar? Perhaps we're in a completely new environment. Maybe there’s an unspoken expectation that we should already know something that we don’t. Whatever the reason, there’s usually a valid explanation for why we feel that way. And yet, we still think: how dare we not be experts the first time around? How incompetent! All of learning involves exposure to ne

Leadership is often discussed through familiar themes such as vision, influence, accountability, developing others, and the pursuit of shared outcomes. What is spoken about far less is leadership optics and presentation, and why this matters just as much. As a supervisor, I am often asked, “Why hasn’t the company done this?” or “Why hasn’t senior leadership spoken to us about this?” when a major change has occurred. The reality is that there are many moving components within

My failed cash withdrawal at the bank turned into a deeper acknowledgment of the immigrant experience. A conversation with a bank teller sparked a thought. My debit card was restricted as I tried to withdraw money to stuff my red pockets (ang baos) for Mum and Dad for Christmas. I decided that red pockets were as good a gift as I could give my parents. The gifting of money in Asian cultures wasn’t foreign. It provided freedom for any spending without restrictions, and it was