Search Results

Most organisations don’t have an AI capability problem. They have leadership, behaviour, and culture problems. AI is being introduced across organisations, but adoption is inconsistent, confidence is low, and impact remains limited. The challenge is not the technology - it’s how people are using it. The Uncomfortable Truth Behind AI Adoption. Over the past few years, AI has moved from a future-facing conversation to a present-day organisational priority, with many businesses making significant investments in tools, platforms, and infrastructure in an effort to stay competitive, drive efficiency, and unlock new forms of value. Across industries, leadership teams are being asked to respond quickly, to experiment, and to integrate AI into how work gets done, often while navigating a level of uncertainty that feels both exciting and difficult to fully define. Despite this momentum, a more complex reality emerges inside organisations - one that is primarily felt by those responsible for making AI adoption actually work in practice. Because while AI has been introduced, and in many cases well-communicated, adoption is not landing in the way many organisations expected. Usage remains inconsistent across teams. Leaders support it in principle, but hesitate in practice. Teams experiment in pockets, but struggle to embed it into how work actually happens. AI’s impact, while visible in moments, often remains at the level of surface productivity gains, rather than translating into deeper shifts in augmenting performance, decision-making, or organisational capability. At We Create Space, this is the pattern we are seeing consistently across organisations. Most organisations don’t have an AI capability problem, they have a leadership and behavioural problem. AI is being introduced, but: leaders lack confidence applying it in real decisions teams are unsure where it is safe to use experimentation is inconsistent usage stays at productivity, not performance The result is familiar. AI exists within the organisation, but is not yet integrated within how the organisation operates. This is not due to a lack of effort, nor is it a reflection of poor intent. If anything, it reflects how much organisations have already done. But it does point to something important - something we explored in our previous article, AI Won’t Save Your Company Culture - that the challenge we are facing with AI is not primarily a technological one. It is a human one. History Repeating Itself. If we zoom out slightly, this pattern is not entirely new. Over the past decade, organisations have navigated wave after wave of transformation - digital transformation, hybrid work, culture change, inclusion and belonging. Each moment has come with a similar promise: that with the right strategy, the right tools, and the right investment, organisations can adapt and move forward more effectively. AI represents the next chapter in that story. It feels both new and familiar at the same time: New in its speed, its scale, and its potential impact; familiar in the way it is being introduced, discussed, and operationalised inside organisations. Once again, we are seeing a pattern emerge - significant investment in tools and infrastructure, a clear articulation of opportunity and intent, and a growing library of use cases and pilot initiatives designed to demonstrate value. As with previous waves of transformation, when we look more closely at how these changes are translating into day-to-day work, the picture becomes more complex. Because the challenge is rarely the introduction of new capability, it is the integration of that capability into behaviour. Where AI Adoption Really Breaks Down. In most organisations, AI adoption has been approached in a way that feels both logical and familiar. New tools are introduced, training is delivered, use cases are shared, and employees are encouraged to explore how these technologies might support their work. Initially, this creates a sense of progress, and in many cases, genuine enthusiasm. People understand what AI is and what it can do, but they are less certain about how to use it effectively in real, often complex, situations. Leaders can see the strategic value, but may hesitate when it comes to applying AI in high-stakes decisions where accountability, risk, and judgment are more visible. Teams may experiment in isolated pockets, but struggle to establish consistent ways of working that integrate AI into everyday processes. What sits beneath all of this is not simply a gap in knowledge, but a gap in application. As we see consistently through our work with organisations, and as reflected in our AI diagnostics and programmes, adoption tends to stall across a number of interconnected areas. Leaders lack confidence in how to use AI as part of their decision-making, teams feel uncertain about where it is safe to experiment, and organisational signals - such as incentives, expectations, and risk frameworks - don’t fully support the behaviours required for consistent adoption. The result is that AI begins to sit slightly outside of how work actually happens. It becomes something people use occasionally, rather than something that is embedded into how individuals, teams, and organisations operate on a daily basis. This is often the point at which organisations begin to recognise that what appears to be a technology challenge is, in practice, a behavioural one. It is also why we typically begin our work with an AI Adoption Diagnostic - a focused, structured conversation that helps leadership teams identify where adoption is stalling across leadership behaviour, team dynamics, and organisational signals, and where the highest-leverage shifts can be made to unlock meaningful impact. The Role Of Leadership In Shaping Adoption. One of the most important shifts we are now seeing is a reframing of what AI adoption actually requires from organisations. Rather than viewing AI purely as a tool that individuals need to learn how to use, forward-thinking organisations are beginning to recognise that AI is fundamentally changing how leadership itself is practised. It is influencing how decisions are made, how information is interpreted, how communication is shaped, and how teams collaborate under conditions of increasing complexity. In this context, AI becomes less about technical capability, and more about leadership capability. The organisations making the most progress are not asking, “How do we train people to use AI tools?” in isolation. Instead, they are asking, “How does AI change how our leaders think, decide, communicate, and lead?” This distinction matters, because it shifts the focus from knowledge to behaviour. It moves the conversation away from what people understand, and towards how they act, particularly in the moments that carry the most weight, moments of uncertainty, pressure, and decision-making. It is within this shift that skill-based learning becomes mission critical. Leadership has always played an integral role in shaping organisational behaviour but in moments of transformation, that role becomes even more pronounced. Employees look to leaders not only for direction, but for signals. What is encouraged? What is rewarded? What is safe? When leaders actively engage with AI - using it in their own work, acknowledging uncertainty, and demonstrating learning in real time - they create permission for others to do the same. When they do not, a different message is often received. That AI is important, but not essential. That experimentation is encouraged, but not expected. That the risk of getting it wrong may outweigh the benefit of trying. These signals are rarely explicit but they are powerful. As we often say in our leadership work, behaviour is the most visible form of culture. Within the context of AI, leadership behaviour will play a significant role in determining whether adoption accelerates or stalls. Why Skill-Based Learning Is The Missing Link. Skill-based learning is not a new concept, but its importance has fundamentally increased in the context of AI and the broader transformation of work. Historically, organisational learning has often been structured around knowledge transfer. Individuals attend workshops, complete modules, and leave with new information, with the expectation that this will translate into improved performance. While this approach can be effective in stable environments, it becomes significantly less effective in contexts that are complex, ambiguous, and rapidly evolving. At its core, it recognises that learning is only meaningful if it changes behaviour. Not in a theoretical sense, but in the everyday moments that shape how work actually happens. How a leader responds to a challenge in a meeting. How a team approaches uncertainty in a project. How an individual decides whether or not to rely on AI in a piece of work. These are not abstract scenarios. They are the instances where organisational culture is created, reinforced, and experienced. Decades of research in learning theory and behavioural science suggest that information alone rarely leads to sustained behaviour change. Without opportunities for practice, reflection, and reinforcement, learning tends to remain conceptual rather than becoming embedded in everyday behaviour. This is particularly relevant in the context of AI, where individuals are being asked not simply to learn a new tool, but to change how they approach their work. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report (2025) highlights that nearly 40% of current skills are expected to be disrupted by the end of the decade, with increasing emphasis on analytical thinking, adaptability, and resilience. At the same time, research from organisations such as McKinsey indicates that while employees are actively seeking opportunities to upskill, many feel unsupported in translating that learning into practical application. What this reveals is not a lack of motivation, but a gap between learning and doing. Skill-based learning addresses this gap by focusing on the development of capabilities that can be applied consistently in real-world contexts. It moves beyond exposure to information and creates environments where individuals can practise, experiment, and build confidence over time. What organisations are asking of their people is not simply to learn a new tool. They are asking them to change how they work, to integrate new forms of thinking into existing processes, and to navigate uncertainty with greater confidence. This cannot be achieved through one-off interventions. It requires a more sustained, experiential approach to development. One that supports individuals not only in understanding AI, but in using it effectively, consistently, and responsibly. From Knowing, To Doing, To Becoming. At its core, skill-based learning is about shifting the focus from what people know, to what they do, and ultimately, to who they become within their roles. In the context of AI, this means moving beyond the question of whether individuals understand how a tool works, and asking whether they can use it effectively in the moments that matter. Can they apply AI in a complex decision where there is no clear answer? Can they use it to enhance communication without losing clarity or authenticity? Can they integrate it into their workflows in a way that feels natural, rather than forced? These are the behavioural questions we need to be answering. Developing these capabilities requires more than instruction. It requires practice in realistic scenarios, opportunities to test and refine approaches, and space to reflect on what works and what does not. Over time, this is what builds confidence, and it is confidence that ultimately drives adoption. Without this, AI remains something that people understand in theory, but hesitate to rely on in practice. The Human Layer Of AI Adoption. While much of the conversation around AI focuses on capability and performance, there is another layer that plays a significant role in shaping how adoption unfolds - the human experience. For many individuals, AI introduces another set of questions which are deeply personal and relational. Questions about trust. Questions about relevance. Questions about identity and value. What does this mean for my role? How do I know when to trust the output? What happens if I get this wrong? How do I use AI without losing my own judgment or voice? These questions are not always voiced explicitly, but they influence behaviour in subtle and powerful ways. They shape whether individuals choose to experiment or hold back, whether they engage fully or partially, and whether they see AI as an opportunity or as a source of risk. This is where emotional intelligence becomes a critical capability. As research from Harvard Business School has shown, psychological safety is one of the strongest predictors of team performance, and it is created through everyday leadership behaviour. In environments where individuals feel safe to experiment, to make mistakes, and to learn openly, adoption tends to accelerate. In environments where risk is penalised or uncertainty is discouraged, the opposite tends to happen. AI adoption, at its core, requires experimentation. And experimentation requires safety.\ When AI Accelerates What Already Exists. One of the more subtle and increasingly important realities of AI adoption is that it does not operate independently of organisational culture. It does not arrive as a neutral layer that simply improves efficiency or productivity in isolation. It interacts with, reflects, and often amplifies the conditions that are already present within an organisation. This is where many organisations encounter an unexpected dynamic. Because while AI has the potential to accelerate innovation, decision-making, and performance, it can just as easily accelerate friction, misalignment, and disengagement if those elements already exist beneath the surface. In highly connected, psychologically safe, and well-aligned teams, AI tends to enhance collaboration. It supports faster iteration, clearer communication, and more confident experimentation. Individuals are more willing to test ideas, challenge outputs, and learn from mistakes, because the environment around them supports that behaviour. In contrast, in teams where trust is low, communication is fragmented, or leadership behaviours are inconsistent, AI can unintentionally amplify those challenges. Decision-making may become faster, but not necessarily better. Communication may become more frequent, but not more aligned. Outputs may increase, while clarity and ownership decrease. In these environments, the introduction of AI does not resolve underlying issues. It often makes them more visible, and in some cases, more pronounced. This reflects a broader principle we see across organisational change. Technology tends to accelerate what already exists. And in the case of AI, the speed of that acceleration is significantly higher than many organisations are used to managing. This dynamic is something we see very clearly when working with organisations. AI reveals and accelerates the qualities of workplace cultures. Which is why attempts to “layer AI on top” of existing ways of working often fall short. Without addressing the underlying behavioural and cultural conditions, adoption remains inconsistent, and the return on investment remains limited. This is where a more integrated approach that combines leadership development, skill-based learning, and culture alignment becomes critical. Impact on Belonging, Engagement, And Retention. It can be tempting to view AI adoption as a standalone initiative, separate from broader conversations around culture, belonging, and engagement. In reality, these dynamics are deeply interconnected. How AI is introduced and experienced within an organisation will shape how people feel about their work, their role, and their future. If AI creates uncertainty without support, people may disengage. If it creates pressure without clarity, people may hesitate. If it is implemented inconsistently, people may lose trust. But when AI is introduced in a way that builds capability, confidence, and clarity, a different dynamic emerges. People feel more equipped to navigate change. They see opportunities for growth, rather than threat. They experience the organisation as investing in their development, not replacing it. This is where skill-based learning becomes a lever not only for performance, but for belonging and retention. As highlighted in our previous article, organisations that invest in human-centred skills such as communication, empathy, and adaptability tend to see stronger engagement and lower attrition. AI does not replace this dynamic. It amplifies it. The Talent Pipeline Challenge. Alongside this, there is another challenge beginning to emerge - one that is less about immediate adoption, and more about the future of leadership within AI-enabled organisations. Historically, leadership capability has been developed over time through experience. Individuals move from junior roles into management positions, gradually building skills in communication, decision-making, stakeholder management, and team leadership. These capabilities are not learned in isolation; they are developed through exposure, practice, and progression. AI has the potential to reshape parts of this journey. As certain tasks become automated or augmented, the nature of early-career roles may change. In some cases, individuals may have fewer opportunities to practise the foundational skills that have traditionally prepared them for leadership. The pathway from junior to manager to director may become less linear, and in some organisations, less clearly defined. This creates an important question for organisations to consider. If the structure of work is changing, how do we ensure that leadership capability continues to develop? While AI can support decision-making, it does not replace the need for judgment. It can enhance communication, it does not replace the need for clarity, empathy, and relational awareness. Efficiency may increase but it does not replace the need for leaders who can navigate complexity, build trust, and create environments where people can perform at their best. In this sense, the development of future leaders becomes more intentional, not less. It requires organisations to think differently about how skills are built, how experience is created, and how individuals are supported in developing the capabilities that AI cannot replicate. Why This Matters Now. Taken together, these dynamics point to a deeper “why” behind the shift towards skill-based learning. AI is not simply introducing new tools into organisations. It is increasing the speed, visibility, and impact of existing behaviours, while simultaneously reshaping the pathways through which those behaviours are developed. This means that organisations cannot rely on technology alone to drive transformation. Nor can they assume that existing approaches to learning and development will be sufficient. Instead, there is a need for a more deliberate focus on the human capabilities that underpin performance. Capabilities such as judgment, communication, adaptability, and emotional intelligence. Capabilities that enable individuals to use AI effectively, rather than simply access it. Capabilities that support not only current performance, but the development of future leadership. This is where the connection to skill-based learning becomes clear because skill-based learning is not only about enabling people to use AI today. It is about ensuring that organisations continue to build the leadership, culture, and capability required to navigate an increasingly complex and fast-moving future. For many organisations, this is also where the conversation begins to shift from short-term adoption to longer-term capability. If AI is reshaping how work is done, then it is also reshaping how future leaders are developed. This is a key focus of our AI Adoption & Leadership Accelerator, where we work with organisations not only to embed AI into current workflows, but to build the leadership behaviours, decision-making capability, and confidence required to sustain performance over time. A More Integrated Approach To AI Readiness. What we are seeing in organisations that are moving forward more effectively is not necessarily a greater investment in technology, but a more integrated approach to capability. An understanding that AI adoption does not sit within a single function, but across multiple layers of the organisation. Within leadership behaviour, where confidence and judgment are shaped. Within team dynamics, where psychological safety enables experimentation. Within organisational culture, where norms determine what is expected. Within systems and structures, where incentives and signals reinforce behaviour. When these elements are aligned, AI begins to move from being a tool that people use occasionally, to a capability that is embedded in how work happens. When they are not, adoption tends to remain fragmented. This is the space in which we work most often with organisations. Not at the level of tools, but at the level of behaviour, leadership, and culture. Supporting organisations to understand where adoption is breaking down, and what needs to shift to unlock its potential. Why Behaviour Change Requires Space. Across our work at We Create Space, we often describe transformation as something that requires space before it requires structure. This is particularly true in the context of AI, where individuals are being asked to change how they think, how they work, and how they make decisions, often while continuing to deliver in their existing roles. The Creating Space Methodology provides a way of understanding how this change unfolds across different, interconnected layers of an organisation. At an individual level, it involves building confidence, self-awareness, and judgment. At a relational level, it involves strengthening communication, trust, and psychological safety. At a collective level, it involves establishing shared norms around experimentation and learning. And at a systemic level, it involves aligning incentives, expectations, and organisational signals. When these layers are disconnected, adoption tends to stall. Leaders may develop awareness, but feel constrained by existing systems. Teams may experiment, but lack alignment with broader organisational priorities. Policies may encourage innovation, but in practice, make it difficult to take risks. When these layers are aligned, behaviour change becomes more sustainable. AI moves from being an initiative, to becoming part of how the organisation operates. From Tool Usage To Organisational Impact. One of the most common challenges organisations face is that AI adoption remains focused on usage, rather than impact. Metrics such as logins, prompts, or tool engagement provide a useful starting point, but they do not fully capture whether AI is improving decision-making, enhancing communication, or driving better outcomes. The organisations seeing the most meaningful results are those that move beyond measuring activity, and instead focus on how AI is shaping behaviour. Are leaders making more informed decisions? Are teams communicating more effectively? Are individuals working with greater clarity and confidence? These are more difficult questions to measure, but they are ultimately the ones that determine whether AI is delivering value. This is also where the connection to belonging, engagement, and retention becomes clear. How individuals experience AI within an organisation will influence how they feel about their work. When AI is introduced in a way that builds capability and confidence, individuals are more likely to feel supported, engaged, and invested in. When it is introduced without these elements, it can create uncertainty, hesitation, and disengagement. In this sense, AI adoption is not separate from culture. It is a reflection of it. If any of this feels familiar, it is often because the challenge is not isolated to a single team or function. It tends to sit across leadership, culture, and systems. And while it can be difficult to see clearly from the inside, it becomes much easier to identify through a structured external lens. A Reflection For Organisations. If AI adoption is not yet delivering the impact you expected, it may be worth asking a different set of questions. Not only: Do our people understand the tools? But also: Do our leaders feel confident using AI in real decisions? Do our teams feel safe experimenting with it? Are we reinforcing the behaviours we want to see? Are we measuring what actually matters? Because often, the answers to these questions reveal where the real opportunity lies. Where We Come In. At We Create Space, our work sits at the intersection of leadership, culture, and behaviour. Through our AI Adoption Diagnostics and Leadership Accelerator, we support organisations in understanding where adoption is breaking down, and in building the capabilities required to move from awareness to action. This includes developing leadership confidence, strengthening team dynamics, and embedding behaviours that support consistent and effective use of AI in real work contexts. Because ultimately, the goal is not simply to introduce AI into an organisation. It is to integrate it into how that organisation thinks, works, and performs. Final Thoughts. AI will continue to evolve, and organisations will continue to invest in new tools, platforms, and capabilities. But the determining factor in whether these investments translate into meaningful outcomes will remain the same: how people engage with them. The organisations that succeed will not necessarily be those with the most advanced technology, but those that are most effective at developing the human capabilities required to use that technology well. They will invest in skill-based learning, not as a standalone initiative, but as a core part of how they build leadership, culture, and performance. They will recognise that behaviour change is not a by-product of transformation, but the mechanism through which it happens. And in doing so, they will position themselves not only to adopt AI, but to integrate it in a way that is sustainable, human-centred, and impactful. While you're here... At We Create Space, we support organisations in bridging the gap between AI capability and real-world application through leadership development, skill-based learning, and culture transformation. Our AI Adoption Diagnostic and Leadership Accelerator are designed to help organisations understand where adoption is breaking down, and to build the behaviours, confidence, and alignment required to unlock meaningful impact. Because ultimately, AI is not just about what organisations invest in. It is about what their people are able to do with it.

Leadership in Climate Action. At We Create Space, we see the transformative power of community every single day. For organisations striving to build a more inclusive, engaged, and thriving workplace, we believe community-building isn’t just a solution. It’s the foundation. Our series, ‘Community Building 101,’ explores key factors for successful community development. Each session will provide actionable strategies and tools to promote effective change, collective learning, workplace culture, and shared values through three key pillars: Inclusion, Wellbeing, and Leadership. The objective of Community Building 101 is to provide actionable strategies & tools to promote effective change, collective learning, workplace culture & shared values. It also serves as a talking point for how grassroots principles can be applied in corporate settings and vice versa. Out in Climate is a non-profit dedicated to building community among LGBTQ+ professionals working on climate solutions and their mission is simple: to connect and uplift queer voices across the climate space. Since 2022, Out in Climate has hosted 50+ events, connecting over 1,000 people from climate tech startups and investors to corporations, government, and NGOs. Research shows that marginalised groups including LGBTQ+ individuals, are disproportionately affected by climate change and are underrepresented in the spaces where solutions are designed. During this timely conversation to mark World Earth Day, we’re joined by some of the team from Out In Climate’s London Chapter, which officially launched in March 2025 as they seek to grow a vibrant local community. Jon-Paul Vicari (he/him), Managing Director for WCS, was joined by Jason Dela Cruz (he/him) & Hayley Moller (she/her), City Leads for Out In Climate London to dive into leadership within the crucial area of community meets climate action. They’ll be discussing the topics below and sharing stories, best practices, and resources to bring these skills to life in both your personal and professional development: - Vision & purpose - Storytelling - Power & privilege - Visible role models We asked our speakers to share their main takeaways from the event: Hayley Moller Community starts with just a few committed people. Stories about climate impact can motivate action Climate action is like community action - start small, but start somewhere. Jason Dela Cruz Find your people - be proactive! Always advocate for the underrepresented in climate discussions. Showing up inspires others to take action. Jon-Paul Vicari You don’t have to know everything or anything to get involved. Showing up is the important step! Be adaptable, each person/community will have different needs and a one size fit all approach can be harmful. Invite people in through stories, not shame. If you would like to discuss booking one of these speakers for your own session, please get in touch with us via email at hello@wecreatespace.co While you're here... At We Create Space, we support organisations in bridging the gap between AI capability and real-world application through leadership development, skill-based learning, and culture transformation. Our AI Adoption Diagnostic and Leadership Accelerator are designed to help organisations understand where adoption is breaking down, and to build the behaviours, confidence, and alignment required to unlock meaningful impact. Because ultimately, AI is not just about what organisations invest in. It is about what their people are able to do with it.

Why inclusion efforts often feel fragmented - and how organisations can connect leadership, cultures and systems to create more consistent workplace experience. For many organisations, inclusion is no longer a question of intent. There are strategies in place. Leadership commitments have been made. Training programmes have been delivered. Employee networks have been established. On paper, progress is visible. And yet, a different picture often emerges when you look more closely at everyday experience. Employees describe environments where inclusion is talked about, but not always felt. Leaders express genuine commitment, but also uncertainty about what inclusive leadership looks like in practice. HR and People teams find themselves navigating a growing gap between organisational ambition and what is consistently happening day-to-day. This is where many inclusion efforts begin to stall. Not because organisations don’t care. But because something more fundamental is missing. This is the thinking that sits behind the Creating Space Methodology - a way of understanding how leadership behaviour, culture and systems need to connect in practice. When Inclusion Doesn’t Stick. One of the most consistent patterns we see in our work is that organisations are often doing many of the right things - but those things are not always connected. There may be strong leadership training in place. Active employee networks. Updated policies. Regular engagement surveys. Each of these matters, but when they operate independently, they can create activity without creating lasting change. Programmes create momentum for a period of time. Conversations begin. Awareness increases. But over time, that energy can fade - particularly if the underlying ways of working remain the same. This is why inclusion can feel visible in moments, but inconsistent in practice. The Gap Most Organisations Are Navigating. What sits underneath this challenge is not a lack of effort, but a lack of alignment. Inclusion is often being approached as a set of initiatives, rather than something embedded into how the organisation actually operates. As a result: leadership behaviour does not always reflect organisational values team dynamics vary significantly across different parts of the business systems and processes do not always reinforce the culture the organisation is trying to create Over time, this creates a gap between intention and experience. Between what organisations say they value and how people actually experience work. This is not just about programmes. It’s about how work actually happens day-to-day. A Different Way of Looking at Culture. To begin closing this gap, it can be helpful to look at culture differently. Rather than seeing it as a single concept, culture can be understood as something that operates across multiple, interconnected layers - from individual awareness, to team interactions, to shared norms, to organisational systems. In most organisations, work is already happening across all of these areas. The challenge is that it is not always happening in a connected way. For example, leaders may develop greater awareness through training, but still operate within systems that reward different behaviours. Teams may build strong internal connections, while other parts of the organisation experience something very different. Policies may exist to support inclusion, but feel difficult to apply in practice. None of these are unusual situations. They reflect a common reality: progress is happening, but not always in a way that reinforces itself. The Creating Space Methodology explores this by looking at how these different layers of culture connect - and where that connection breaks down in practice. Why Progress Can Feel Slow - Even When Work Is Happening. When efforts across leadership, culture and systems are not aligned, organisations can experience a sense of ongoing effort without clear momentum. New initiatives are introduced. Energy builds. Some areas improve. But over time, the same challenges reappear in different forms. This is often the point where HR and People leaders begin to ask a deeper question: How do we make inclusion part of how the organisation actually functions, rather than something that sits alongside everyday work? This question marks an important shift. It moves the focus from activity to integration . Towards a More Integrated Approach. An integrated approach to inclusion does not necessarily mean doing more. In many cases, it means creating stronger connection between what is already happening. It involves looking at how: leadership behaviour shapes everyday experience team dynamics influence belonging and trust organisational systems reinforce (or limit) inclusive practices And asking where those elements are working together - and where they are not. This is where having a clear framework can be useful. Not as a rigid model, but as a way of bringing structure and visibility to what can otherwise feel like a complex and evolving challenge. Moving Forward. For organisations at this stage, progress often begins with reflection rather than immediate action. Taking time to step back and consider questions such as: Where do employees experience the biggest gaps between values and behaviour? Where does inclusion feel consistent - and where does it vary? Which aspects of the organisation reinforce inclusive ways of working, and which make them harder? These kinds of questions can help shift the conversation from isolated initiatives to a more connected understanding of culture. Even small changes in how organisations approach this reflection can begin to create momentum. Exploring This in More Detail. This article touches on a pattern we see across many organisations - the gap between inclusion strategy and everyday experience. In our latest white paper, we explore this challenge in more depth, alongside a practical framework for understanding how leadership behaviour, culture and systems interact - and how organisations can begin to align them more effectively. Download the full white paper below to explore The Creating Space Methodology in more detail. Final Thoughts. Inclusion is not only shaped by what organisations say or intend. It is shaped by how people experience their work - in conversations, decisions, systems and relationships. Closing the gap between strategy and experience is not about doing more. It is about creating stronger connection between what organisations believe, how people behave, and how work actually happens. And that is where meaningful, sustainable change begins. While you're here... We Create Space is a global learning platform and consultancy focused on workplace talent-development and community-building. Our human-centred approach creates space for people and organisations to thrive through leadership development, team learning experiences, data-backed belonging practices and bespoke content . Learn more We also organise FREE community events throughout the year! We offer a variety of ways to get involved - both online and in person. This is a great way to network and learn more about others' experiences, through in-depth discussion on an array of topics. You can find out what events we have coming up here . New ones are added all the time, so make sure you sign up to our newsletter so you can stay up to date!

We spoke to Marie-Helene Tyack about what inspired her to found Lesbian History Day and why preserving lesbian history is so important. WCS: Can you tell us the story of how Lesbian History Day came to be? What inspired you or made you realise that this event was needed? Marie-Helene Tyack: My lovely friend Kevin took me on a trip to the London Lighthouse (now the London Brand Museum). The London Lighthouse was the first palliative care centre for those dying of AIDS/HIV. Kevin told me stories of people he had loved and lost there - then reminded me that it was lesbians who looked after the patients, gave blood and marched for the rights of those with AIDS and HIV. This sat with me and resonated very deeply. Most importantly I thought, what are we doing to make sure that people remember these and all the other lesbians who have shaped history? I didn’t feel that enough had been done to remember them, our stories are often erased or minimised and something had to be done about it! WCS: What narratives about lesbians have been erased, sanitized or misunderstood that you most want to reclaim? Marie-Helene Tyack: As I started doing more research on this topic I got more angry at how thoroughly our identity has been erased in history books. How many stories of women living with “a good friend” have you read, and it turns out that it was two women who had made a deep commitment to love each other? I felt that this was a sign of disrespect to the relationships, love and identity of these lesbians. Lesbians are so often erased in media too. I’m thinking in particular of ‘It’s a Sin’. While overall the show is a wonderful representation of a particularly dark chapter in our history, there were absolutely no lesbians featured in the story (which we know is not the case). Personally I love the French film ‘120 Battements par Minute’, telling the story of ACT UP activists in Paris in the early 90s where lesbians are very present! WCS: How are you considering intersectionality when shaping Lesbian History Day? Marie-Helene Tyack: Intersectionality is absolutely key in how we look at history. The lives of so many fabulous lesbians of the past were shaped by overlapping factors such as race, class, disability, gender identity, culture, and age. For example, Stormé DeLarverie was a butch lesbian of colour whose scuffle with the police sparked the Stonewall uprising, but they are often forgotten over figures like Marsha P Johnson. There is also Gladys Bentley, an icon of Black female masculinity. When we speak about historical lesbians, we must recognise the different forms of marginalisation that they faced and how this shaped how they turned up and ultimately the role that they played in our history. I believe we also need to remember to link today’s challenges to those of the past. We know the rights of our community are being slowly eroded - so what can we learn from the struggles and leaders of the past? WCS: How has access to lesbian history (or lack thereof) impacted your perspective on your own identity? Marie-Helene Tyack: I turned 50 on International Women’s Day - a great day for a lesbian to be born! And perhaps this important milestone is making me think about my own personal legacy - my journey, the role models who have shaped me, etc. One of the key motivators for LHD was to set up something for today and tomorrow’s generation of lesbians. I am (and am ashamed to admit it) perhaps a little jealous of today’s generation and the ease that they have to wear their hair pink and not have to label themselves. I want to make sure that they know what my generation (and those before us) went through to allow them to do that; I am a product of the UK’s Section 28 legislation, which left a whole generation traumatised with internalised homophobia. Collectively we have fought so hard for our rights and this should not be forgotten. It should be intentionally celebrated! For me, Lesbian History Day is about acknowledging the courage and resilience of those who paved the way for future generations. It's a day to celebrate our community's strength and diversity, and to inspire continued progress and acceptance. WCS: Is there a figure or story from lesbian history that particularly resonates with you? Marie-Helene Tyack: I have discovered the story of Jane Addams (her birthday is on 6th September - Lesbian History Day!) and wow, what an incredible woman! Born in 1860, she was an American suffragette, social reformer, activist and the first US woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. She set up a community-led settlement house in Chicago, where men and women set up a school, theatre, nursery and so much more. She did so much work to end child labour and reform the law to protect women working in factories. She also revolutionised trash collection in Chicago, challenged women to change the way they thought about their own careers and did much for immigrants in Chicago. She also happened to be a lesbian. She was with her partner, Mary Rozet Smith who was a teacher in her school for over 40 years. We are lucky to have correspondence between the two of them. In 1902 she wrote, “You must know, dear, how I long for you all the time—and especially during the last three weeks. There is reason in the habit of married folk keeping together. Forever yrs.” No denying that they were more than “gal pals”! WCS: If a young lesbian comes across this day 20 years from now, what do you hope they feel? Marie-Helene Tyack: Pride mostly! Pride that the lesbian community has such a rich and diverse history, pride to be part of it and wanting to share this day with everyone else! I would hope that they would be curious and want to find out more about individuals that have shaped our history. WCS: How can people get involved with Lesbian History Day? Marie-Helene Tyack: Check out lesbianhistoryday.com for updates on events as we get closer to Lesbian History Day. You can also follow us on Instagram for event updates and content on historical lesbians that you might not know about! Marie-Helene Tyack (she/her) is Global Inclusion, Diversity & Belonging Business Partner at Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, where she leads DEI initiatives globally. In addition to this, Marie-Helene has been involved in the Pride Employee Resource Group in the Allianz Group since 2018 – and has been the Chair since January 2022. In this role she sets the strategy for LGBTQ+ inclusion for the Allianz Group worldwide. She is also the founder of Lesbian History Day. While you're here... We Create Space is a global learning platform and consultancy focused on workplace talent-development and community-building. Our human-centred approach creates space for people and organisations to thrive through leadership development, team learning experiences, data-backed belonging practices and bespoke content . Learn more We also organise FREE community events throughout the year! We offer a variety of ways to get involved - both online and in person. This is a great way to network and learn more about others' experiences, through in-depth discussion on an array of topics. You can find out what events we have coming up here . New ones are added all the time, so make sure you sign up to our newsletter so you can stay up to date!

Turning everyday conversations at work into opportunities for meaningful reflection, growth and change. Conversations Are Everywhere But Development Isn’t. Development conversations have become a standard part of organisational life. Whether they take the form of performance reviews, career check-ins, mentoring, or leadership coaching sessions, most organisations invest significant time and energy into creating space for people to reflect, grow, and improve. Yet, despite this investment, many of these conversations fail to produce meaningful change. They often feel rushed or overly structured. Managers move quickly into feedback or advice and employees focus on demonstrating progress or meeting expectations. Actions are agreed, but the underlying patterns shaping behaviour are rarely explored in any real depth. Research reflects this disconnect, with only a small proportion of employees feeling performance conversations genuinely help them improve. What is often missing is not intent, but space. Space to pause before responding. Space to reflect before solving. S pace to understand what is actually driving behaviour beneath the surface. Because without that space, development conversations tend to stay at the level of outcomes and real development rarely happens there. In practice, this gap has real consequences.  In one organisation we worked with, colleagues highlighted unclear pathways, inconsistent manager support, and a lack of confidence as key barriers to progression. What sat underneath all three was not a lack of talent, but a lack of effective developmental conversations. Why Behaviour Doesn’t Change Just Because We Talk About It. One of the most common assumptions in leadership is that awareness leads directly to action. If someone receives clear feedback or identifies a development goal, they will naturally adjust their behaviour but in practice, this is rarely the case. Human behaviour is shaped by a complex mix of habits, emotional responses, past experiences, team dynamics, and organisational expectations. As a result, even when individuals understand what they “should” do differently, they often find themselves repeating familiar patterns. This is why many development conversations feel productive in the moment but fail to translate into sustained change. The conversation may identify what needs to change, but it does not explore why the current pattern exists or how it is being reinforced. Without that deeper understanding, change remains theoretical. The Missing Distinction: Performance vs Development One of the reasons development conversations fall short is that they are often mistaken for performance conversations. Performance feedback focuses on what has happened, results, mistakes, outcomes. It is retrospective and evaluative. Developmental feedback focuses on what could happen next growth, potential, and future capability. It is forward-looking and exploratory. Without this distinction, conversations stay anchored in evaluation rather than evolution. People leave knowing what they did but not how to grow. Creating Space Before Creating Change . At We Create Space, we approach development and coaching conversations through a simple but powerful shift. This shift forms the foundation of the Creating Space Methodology, which structures conversations around a natural progression:  Awareness → Compassion → Connection → Agency Instead of asking: “What needs to change?” We begin with: “What is actually happening here?” Rather than treating development as a linear process of feedback and action, this approach recognises that meaningful change tends to emerge through stages. People first need to notice patterns, then understand them, then see how those patterns interact with others, and only then begin to experiment with new ways of responding. Psychological Safety: The Condition for Change Creating space is not just about slowing the conversation down, it is about creating psychological safety. When individuals feel judged, they protect themselves but we know when people feel safe, they are more likely to be reflective. Without that safety, even the most well-intentioned feedback is unlikely to translate into behaviour change. From Awareness to Action: How the Conversation Evolves . Most development conversations already touch on elements of this process, but often in a fragmented or rushed way. When structured intentionally each stage becomes clearer. Awareness: The conversation begins with observation, not judgement. What patterns are emerging? When do certain behaviours appear? What situations feel energising, and which create tension? Compassion: Instead of moving quickly to fixing behaviour, the focus shifts to understanding it. What might explain this pattern? When has it been useful in the past? What pressures or expectations might be shaping it? Connection: The conversation expands beyond the individual. How might others experience this behaviour? What team dynamics or cultural signals might be reinforcing it? Agency: With a clearer understanding, individuals can begin to experiment with small, intentional shifts in behaviour. What This Looks Like in Practice In reality, this can show up as simply as: Observation : what you’ve noticed Insight : what it might reveal about strengths or opportunities Future focus : how this could be developed moving forward This helps translate reflection into something actionable without losing depth. Development Doesn't Happen in Isolation . One of the limitations of many coaching and development approaches is that they focus almost entirely on the individual. While personal insight is important, it is only one part of the picture. Development is also influenced by the environment including team dynamics, leadership behaviour, organisational culture, and systemic pressures. For this reason, the Creating Space Methodology looks at development across four interconnected dimensions: Personal Space Relational Space Collective Space Systemic Space The Equity Gap in Development It is also important to recognise that access to developmental conversations is not evenly distributed. In many organisations, underrepresented groups are more likely to receive feedback focused on performance or mistakes and less likely to receive forward-looking development guidance or stretch opportunities. Over time, this creates invisible barriers to progression not through intent, but through inconsistency. When these dynamics are acknowledged, development conversations become not just individual reflections, but levers for more equitable progression. The Role of AI in Development Conversations As organisations integrate AI into learning and development, coaching conversations are evolving. AI can provide feedback, suggest learning pathways, and identify patterns. It is highly effective at answering: “What should I do?” But it is less effective at holding the space required to explore: “What is actually driving this?” This is where human-centered conversations become more important. The value of a coaching conversation is not just in the insight it generates, but in the space it creates for reflection, exploring ambiguity, and understanding context. The most effective organisations are not choosing between AI and human development. They are using AI for efficiency and human conversations for depth and behaviour change. What This Can Sound Like Often, the adjustment needed to move from giving advice to development feedback is simply different language. Instead of: “You need to be more proactive” Try: “What’s getting in the way of being proactive?” Instead of: “You should speak up more” Try: “What feels risky about speaking up?” Instead of: “You should address it directly” Try: “What outcome do you want from that conversation?” These subtle changes move conversations from instruction to ownership and from compliance to capability. Practical Ways to Improve Your Conversations. Improving development and coaching conversations does not require a complete overhaul. In many cases, small shifts in how conversations are structured can have a significant impact. One of the simplest changes is to slow the conversation down . Instead of moving quickly to feedback or advice, spend more time exploring what is actually happening. Ask open questions. Leave space for reflection. Resist the urge to immediately solve. Another shift is to focus on patterns rather than isolated events . Rather than discussing a single situation, explore when similar situations occur and what connects them. This helps move the conversation from reactive problem-solving to deeper insight. It is also useful to expand the conversation beyond the individual . Consider how team dynamics, organisational culture, and systemic factors might be influencing behaviour. This not only creates a more accurate understanding of the situation, but also reduces the tendency to place all responsibility on the individual. Finally, focus on small, testable changes  rather than large commitments. Behaviour change is rarely immediate. Encouraging experimentation allows individuals to learn what works in practice and build confidence over time. From Conversations to Career Progression Development conversations are not just about improving performance in the current role. They are one of the primary ways organisations shape career progression. Managers influence progression through: the quality of feedback they give the opportunities they create the advocacy and sponsorship they provide When development conversations are inconsistent, progression becomes stagnant and inconsistent too. When they are intentional and forward-looking, they build confidence, capability, and readiness for leadership. From Conversations to Culture Over time, the way organisations approach development conversations begins to shape their culture. If conversations are primarily evaluative, people learn to protect themselves. If they are primarily advisory, people defer to authority. If they are reflective and exploratory, people learn to think, notice, and adapt. This has a direct impact on engagement, performance, and retention. In this sense, development conversations are not solely individual interactions, they are part of the organisation’s cultural infrastructure. Final Thoughts and Reflections:   The question is not whether development conversations are happening. It is whether they are building capability, confidence, and progression or simply reinforcing performance expectations. The organisations that get this right are not having more conversations. They are having better ones and seeing the impact in how people lead, grow, and stay. If development conversations are already part of your role, ask yourself how they are happening. Are you creating clarity or reinforcing expectations? Are you opening reflection or moving quickly to solutions? Are you building capability or just managing performance? Creating space for better conversations does not require more time, it only requires a different kind of attention. While you're here... We Create Space is a global learning platform and consultancy focused on workplace talent-development and community-building. Our human-centred approach creates space for people and organisations to thrive through leadership development, team learning experiences, data-backed belonging practices and bespoke content . Learn more We also organise FREE community events throughout the year! We offer a variety of ways to get involved - both online and in person. This is a great way to network and learn more about others' experiences, through in-depth discussion on an array of topics. You can find out what events we have coming up here . New ones are added all the time, so make sure you sign up to our newsletter so you can stay up to date!

How our earliest experiences of care can shape the way we lead, create, and relate - and what becomes possible when we begin to understand and reimagine them. When Care Stops Making Sense. Care is one of those concepts that feels immediately familiar - almost too familiar to question. It’s something we assume we understand without needing to define it. We speak about it easily - caring for others, caring about our work, self-care, taking care of things that matter. It sits quietly underneath many of the values we hold, both personally and professionally. We care about our work. We care about people. We care about doing things well. And yet, despite how often we use the word, it’s surprisingly rare that we pause to consider what it actually means in practice, or how our understanding of it has been shaped over time. The more I’ve spent time reflecting on it recently, the more I’ve realised how complex, shaped, and at times contradictory our relationship with care actually is. It is something we learn, often long before we have the language to describe it. It is shaped through early experiences, through relationships, through environments where care is either consistently present, inconsistently given, or quietly entangled with expectation. And because of this, what we come to recognise as care is not just about support or nurture - it is about interpretation. It is about what felt safe, what felt required, and what we learned to do in response. It is something we absorb, interpret, internalise, and recreate - often without realising we are doing so. Over the past year, particularly through therapy and through some of the broader personal life shifts I’ve been navigating, I’ve found myself returning to a question that feels both simple and surprisingly difficult to answer: What does care actually mean to me? Not in theory. Not in the way I might describe it in a workshop or a leadership session. But in practice - in how I relate to myself, to others, to my work, and to the spaces I move through. And what I’ve been noticing is that much of my relationship with care was not consciously chosen. It was inherited. The Care We Learn Before We Understand It. If we look closely, our earliest experiences of care rarely come with explanation. They come through feeling. Through repetition. Through subtle patterns that shape how safe, supported, or responsible we learn to be. For many of us, our relationship with care begins in the context of maternal or caregiving figures - not only through what was provided, but through how it was provided. Whether care felt consistent or unpredictable. Whether it was freely given or conditional. Whether it created space, or whether it came with expectation, responsibility, or emotional weight. These early relational environments form what developmental psychology would describe as internal working models - templates for how we understand connection, support, and safety. Attachment theory , first developed by John Bowlby and later expanded by Mary Ainsworth, suggests that these early caregiving environments shape how we experience safety, support, and connection throughout our lives. And while we might intellectually recognise that our lives have moved far beyond those early environments, the patterns themselves often continue to operate quietly in the background. We see it in how we respond to stress. In how comfortable we feel asking for help. In how quickly we step in to take responsibility for others. In how we interpret independence - as freedom, or as necessity. What I’ve been beginning to understand, particularly through therapy over the past year, is how deeply those early environments continue to influence how I relate to care now. Not in an obvious or linear way, but in patterns that repeat across different areas of life. For me, one of the patterns I’ve been exploring is a tendency to hold things together. The tendency to anticipate what is needed before it is asked. The instinct to step in, to organise, to stabilise. The quiet assumption that if something needs to be held, it is likely mine to hold. I’ve noticed this most clearly in the moments where I’m already overwhelmed, but still instinctively saying “it’s fine” - not because it is, but because part of me has already decided it’s mine to carry. It’s a pattern that, on the surface, looks like competence. These behaviours are often interpreted as strengths. It’s often rewarded. It’s often reinforced in leadership contexts. They align closely with how we tend to define capability, particularly in professional contexts. Being reliable. Being responsive. Being able to manage complexity without it becoming visible. And in many ways, they are strengths. But what I’ve been noticing is that they are also adaptations. Responses that were learned in earlier environments, where being attuned and responsible was not just helpful, but necessary. And because of that, they come with an underlying orientation towards care that is not always balanced. An orientation where care is something I give, manage, and maintain - but not always something I fully allow myself to receive. A learned relationship with care that quietly equates support with responsibility, and safety with control. The Subtle Shift From Care to Control. There is a particular nuance here that I hadn’t fully recognised until recently, which is how easily care can become intertwined with control. Not in an overt or intentional way, but in a quieter, more structural sense. When care is linked to responsibility, and responsibility is linked to safety, there is a natural tendency to try to stay ahead of things. To anticipate rather than respond. To manage rather than allow. In my own experience, this has often shown up as a kind of internal pressure to keep things coherent. To ensure that nothing is dropped, that everything continues to function, that any potential disruption is addressed before it fully emerges. And while this creates a sense of stability, it also creates a limit. Because it leaves very little room for uncertainty, and even less room for shared responsibility. This is where something begins to feel unsustainable, even if it is not immediately visible. Because care, when it is held in this way, becomes something that requires constant effort. It is something that needs to be maintained, rather than something that can be experienced more fluidly. And over time, that creates a quiet form of depletion - not because care itself is draining, but because of how it is being carried. The Quiet Translation Into Adulthood. What I’ve found particularly interesting is how seamlessly these early patterns translate into adult life - not just in personal relationships, but in professional contexts as well. Care becomes something we  do . We take care of teams. We take care of projects. We take care of relationships. We take care of outcomes. And in many ways, this is part of what makes us effective. The ability to anticipate needs, to create stability, to support others - these are essential leadership qualities. They are what allow environments to function, and in many cases, to thrive. But there is often an imbalance that sits underneath this. Because while we are actively giving care, we are not always equally able to receive it. We might find it difficult to: - ask for support before things become overwhelming - share uncertainty without feeling like we are losing credibility - allow others to hold responsibility alongside us - recognise our own limits without immediately pushing past them And over time, this creates a pattern that feels sustainable - until it isn’t. Because care that flows in only one direction eventually becomes depletion. Care, Creativity, and the Idea of Abundance. One of the more unexpected places this has shown up for me is in my relationship with creativity. When I think about care purely in relational terms, it’s relatively easy to identify patterns. But when I extend that lens to the way I relate to my work, my ideas, and the things I’m building, a different layer becomes visible. What does it mean to care for a project? To nurture something that is still forming? To allow it to develop at its own pace, rather than forcing it into clarity too quickly? There is a strong parallel here with how we relate to growth more broadly. In many professional environments, we are encouraged to move quickly from idea to execution, from uncertainty to definition. There is an underlying assumption that progress should be efficient, structured, and visible. But if we look at how creative processes actually unfold, they rarely follow a linear or efficient path. They require space. They require periods of uncertainty, of iteration, of not knowing. They require a different kind of care - one that is less about control and more about allowing. Less about managing outcomes and more about supporting emergence. There is a growing body of research in neuroscience that points to the importance of this kind of space. The brain’s default mode network , which is associated with insight and integration, becomes more active during periods of rest and reflection. In other words, the mind requires space in order to reorganise itself. And the same, in many ways, is true of how we relate to care. When we approach care from a place of scarcity - where time is limited, energy is stretched, and everything feels urgent - we tend to become more controlling, more directive, more outcome-focused. But when care is rooted in a sense of abundance - where there is enough space, enough time, enough support - it begins to look different. It becomes more patient, more generative, more collaborative and more sustainable. And this shift, from scarcity to abundance, is not just practical. It is a fundamentally different way of relating - to care, to creativity, and to what we allow to emerge. The Role of Safety in How We Give and Receive Care. At the centre of all of this sits something that feels increasingly important to acknowledge, which is the role of safety. Our ability to give and receive care is directly shaped by how safe we feel. Not just physically, but emotionally and relationally. More recent work in neuroscience, particularly Polyvagal Theory , suggests that our capacity to connect, receive support, and feel safe in relationship is deeply linked to our nervous system - not just our conscious beliefs. If at any point it has not felt safe to rely on others, to express needs, or to be supported without expectation, then the body adapts. It develops strategies that prioritise stability. And for many of us, that strategy becomes self-reliance. The ability to function independently, to manage internally, to maintain control over what is happening. We learn to become self-sufficient. We learn to manage alone. We learn to anticipate rather than ask. Again, this is not inherently problematic. In many cases, it is what allows us to navigate complex environments successfully. But it also creates a ceiling. Because self-reliance, on its own, cannot sustain the kind of relational depth and shared responsibility that most systems - whether individual or organisational - actually require. Safety that is built on self-sufficiency alone is fragile. It requires constant maintenance. It leaves little room for rest. And it often prevents deeper forms of connection - both personally and professionally. This is where redefining care becomes less about behaviour, and more about experience and expanding capacity. It’s not just about  what  we do differently. It’s about whether we can begin to experience support, interdependence, and shared responsibility as safe. The Tension Between Independence and Dependency. One of the more nuanced aspects of this work is navigating the tension between independence and dependency. In many leadership and professional contexts, independence is positioned as the goal. The ability to operate autonomously, to make decisions, to take ownership - these are all seen as markers of capability. And to a certain extent, they are. But when independence becomes the only acceptable mode of functioning, it can quietly shift into something else: self-dependency. A state where we rely solely on ourselves, not because it is always the most effective approach, but because it feels like the only safe one. On the other side of this, dependency is often viewed negatively - associated with lack of capability or over-reliance on others. But this binary misses something important. Because the alternative to both is interdependence. A more balanced dynamic where: - support can be given and received - responsibility can be shared - autonomy and connection can coexist And this is where care begins to take on a different quality. Not as something we either give or receive, but as something that exists within a system of relationships. Care as a Leadership Capability. When we bring this back into leadership, the implications become clearer. The way we relate to care shapes not just our own experience, but the environments we create. Leaders who struggle to receive care often create cultures where others feel they must do the same. Leaders who overextend themselves often normalise overextension in their teams. Leaders who equate care with control may unintentionally limit autonomy and trust. But when leaders begin to develop a more conscious relationship with care, something shifts. They create space. Space for honesty, support, experimentation, and sustainable performance. This aligns closely with what we’ve explored in our work around psychological safety and emotional inteligence , as well as in pieces like  The Joy of Starting Over  - where transformation is not driven by immediate action, but by the willingness to stay with uncertainty long enough for something new to emerge. Care, in this context, is not a soft or secondary capability. It is foundational. A Different Relationship With Self-Care. It would be difficult to talk about care without touching on self-care - a term that has become increasingly visible, and at times, increasingly diluted. What I’ve come to realise is that self-care, in its more meaningful form, is not about optimisation or performance. It is not about doing more things to maintain output. It is about relationship: How we relate to our own needs. How we respond to our own limits. How we hold ourselves when things are uncertain or difficult. In that sense, self-care is not separate from the patterns we’ve been exploring. It is deeply connected to them. If our internalised understanding of care is rooted in responsibility, control, or conditionality, then self-care will often take on those same qualities. It will feel like something we have to earn. Something we fit in around everything else. Or something we use to recover, rather than to sustain. Redefining self-care, then, becomes part of redefining care more broadly. What Begins to Change. This is not a process that resolves quickly or cleanly. It is something that unfolds gradually, often in ways that are only visible in hindsight. Small moments where something is done differently. Where support is allowed in slightly earlier. Where responsibility is shared, rather than held alone. I’ve noticed, for example, that there are moments now where I can pause, even briefly, before stepping in. Where I can recognise that something does not need to be carried in the way I might have previously assumed. Letting go of the need to hold everything together. Where I can allow space for others to contribute, rather than instinctively taking the lead. These are not dramatic changes. But they are significant. Because they begin to reshape the underlying relationship with care. Moving it from something that is managed individually, to something that can exist more collectively. And perhaps most importantly, beginning to experience care not just as something we give, but as something we are part of. The Creating Space Perspective. What I’ve been noticing is that this kind of shift doesn’t happen through a single realisation, or even through a clear decision to do things differently. It tends to emerge more gradually, through a different way of relating to what’s happening in the moment. In our work at We Create Space, we often describe this as a movement that begins with awareness - simply noticing the patterns that are playing out, without immediately trying to change them. From there, there is a softening into compassion, an ability to understand those patterns in context rather than judging them. And then, a widening into connection - recognising that what we are experiencing is not isolated, but part of a broader system of relationships, environments, and learned behaviours. It is only from that place that something like agency becomes possible. Not as a reaction, but as a choice. A slightly different response. A small shift in how we engage with what is happening. This is not a linear process, and it doesn’t happen once. It repeats, often quietly, across different situations. But over time, it begins to change how we move - less from automatic response, and more from something that feels considered, intentional, and grounded. At the centre of this is something that can feel counterintuitive, particularly in environments that prioritise speed and clarity: the idea that transformation requires space before it requires structure. That there is value in pausing, in not immediately resolving, in allowing something to be seen more clearly before deciding what to do with it. And in many ways, this is where care begins to shift. Not just in how we act, but in how we relate - to ourselves, to others, and to the systems we are part of. Pause and Reflect. If you’re exploring your own relationship with care, you might begin with a few simple questions: What did care look like in my early environment? How do I tend to give care now? How comfortable am I receiving it? Where might I be overextending or over-responsible? What feels difficult about asking for support? What would a more balanced relationship with care look like? These questions are not designed to produce quick clarity. They are designed to shift awareness. They are questions to sit with. Because often, the insight comes not from the first response, but from what emerges over time. A Different Way of Holding It All. If I return to where I started - to that quiet question of what care actually means to me now - the answer is still evolving. But what has shifted is how I relate to it. Less as something I need to manage or get right. More as something I can understand, explore, and gradually reshape. More as something I can stay in relationship with. Because care is not static. It is not something we master once and carry forward unchanged. It is something that continues to evolve as we do. And perhaps the shift is not in trying to perfect it, but in becoming more aware of how it is shaping us - and where we might begin to choose something different. Not all at once. Not dramatically. But gradually, in the way we relate to ourselves, to others, and to the spaces we are part of. In that sense, redefining our relationship with care is not about adding something new. It is about understanding what has always been there - and allowing it to become something more conscious, more balanced, and ultimately, more sustainable.  And so perhaps the shift is not in learning how to care better, but in understanding how we’ve been relating to it all along. Michael Stephens (he/they) is a consultant designing human-centred systems rooted in transformation and long-term growth. He works at the level of culture and relationships, examining how leadership is experienced across identity, wellbeing and performance. As Founder of We Create Space , he partners with global organisations to design leadership ecosystems that strengthen capability, deepen belonging and support sustainable success. While you're here... We Create Space is a global learning platform and consultancy focused on workplace talent-development and community-building. Our human-centred approach creates space for people and organisations to thrive through leadership development, team learning experiences, data-backed belonging practices and bespoke content . Learn more We also organise FREE community events throughout the year! We offer a variety of ways to get involved - both online and in person. This is a great way to network and learn more about others' experiences, through in-depth discussion on an array of topics. You can find out what events we have coming up here . New ones are added all the time, so make sure you sign up to our newsletter so you can stay up to date!

Why employee resource groups (ERGs) are becoming one of the most important leadership development environments in modern organisations and how to structure them for belonging, performance and retention. The Role of ERGs Is Changing Employee Resource Groups have been part of organisational life for decades. Traditionally, they have been positioned as community spaces, places where employees with shared identities or experiences can connect, support one another, and advocate for inclusion. In many organisations, they have also played an important cultural role, helping to build awareness, celebrate diversity, and create a sense of belonging for underrepresented groups. Over the last several years the organisational context in which ERGs operate has changed significantly. Workplaces are more complex, more distributed, and more diverse than ever before. Expectations of leadership have also evolved and employees are no longer looking solely for direction and expertise. They are looking for emotional intelligence, clarity, inclusion, and environments where they feel safe to contribute meaningfully. In this context, ERGs are no longer simply community initiatives. They are increasingly functioning as informal leadership environments - spaces where individuals are already practising many of the capabilities organisations are trying to develop through formal programmes. The challenge facing most organisations now is they have not yet fully recognised or structured this potential. The Pattern Many Organisations Are Experiencing In many organisations, ERGs are active but not always effective. Across organisations of all sizes and maturity levels, we see a number of costly challenges including but not limited to:  1. Missed opportunities to influence decisions and shape strategy   → ERGs not feeding into the business = lost insight, weaker decisions 2. Burnout and drop-off of ERG leaders, leading to loss of institutional knowledge   → High-potential talent disengaging or leaving 3. Inability to demonstrate impact or justify continued focus   → Loss of investment, deprioritisation, and eventual shutdown At the same time, organisations miss a significant opportunity as ERG leaders often represent high-potential talent. They are already demonstrating initiative, relational intelligence, and systems awareness but without intentional integration this potential remains largely untapped. From Community Spaces to Leadership Pipelines For many organisations, ERGs are still being treated as community spaces that sit adjacent to the business. The organisations seeing the most impact are doing something fundamentally different. They are repositioning ERGs as leadership and talent pipelines, incubator spaces where future leaders build the skills, visibility, and networks that directly translate into stronger performance across the organisation. This does require a more intentional approach to how ERGs are designed, supported, and integrated into the business. ERGs as Leadership Laboratories Inside ERGs, leadership is already happening. Individuals are learning how to: facilitate discussions across difference build trust in diverse groups navigate conflict with care influence without formal authority These are not peripheral skills. They are core leadership capabilities in modern organisations. A useful shift is to reframe ERGs not as support networks, but as leadership laboratories . Emotional intelligence is strongly linked to leadership effectiveness. Psychological safety drives team performance. Inclusive leadership increases engagement, innovation, and retention. What is striking is that many of these capabilities are already being practised inside ERGs. The difference is that this learning is often informal and unsupported. When organisations treat ERGs as structured environments for leadership development, the value becomes visible, measurable, and scalable. Skill-Based Learning in Real Contexts One of the limitations of traditional leadership development is that it often takes place outside of real work contexts. Workshops and programmes introduce important concepts but without application, learning remains theoretical. ERGs offer a different kind of environment as they provide real situations, real relationships, and real challenges. This makes them particularly well-suited for skill-based learning.  An ERG leader facilitating a discussion is not just delivering an event. They are practising communication, emotional regulation, stakeholder management, and influence in real time. When supported with the right frameworks and reflection tools, these experiences become powerful development opportunities. The opportunity is not to add more learning but to make this learning intentional. Structuring ERGs for Impact: The Creating Space Approach At We Create Space, we support organisations to make this shift by focusing on four conditions that consistently unlock ERG impact: Awareness : Defining what ERGs are accountable for and how that connects to business outcomes Compassion : Understanding and building the leadership, influence, and coaching skills ERG leaders need to succeed Connection : Strengthening relationships between ERGs, senior leaders, and the wider organisation Agency : Embedding behaviours, rhythms, and measurement that sustain momentum over time When these conditions are in place, ERGs move beyond event delivery and fluctuating engagement. They become environments where leadership capability is built in real time, and where impact is measurable across retention, progression, and performance, not just participation. It is important to clarify that this is not about asking more of the often already overloaded ERG members. It is about creating the conditions for them to operate with greater focus, influence, and impact. When ERGs are set up well, they do not just support inclusion, they actively shape the leaders your organisation will rely on next. Insight, Capability and Application: How Organisations Are Making This Shift Organisations that are successfully repositioning ERGs are taking a more structured, data-led approach. Together, this approach connects ERGs directly to leadership development, equipping individuals with transferable skills while strengthening organisational capability. Insight & Direction Understanding what is driving or limiting connection, progression, and trust across communities is the starting point. This creates clarity on where ERGs can have the greatest impact and positions them as a critical input into leadership and talent strategy. Leadership Capability Build Insights are translated into targeted learning experiences focused on the core capabilities ERG leaders and sponsors need particularly in influence, stakeholder management, coaching, and driving outcomes. Coaching & Application Group coaching creates space for ERG leaders to apply learning to challenges in real time building confidence, improving decision-making, and accelerating impact. From Culture to Performance Right now, the most common positioning of ERGs is as cultural initiatives. This is extremely limiting in scope because culture and performance are not separate. They are deeply interconnected and many organisations include values performance as part of annual reviews.  When organisations invest in environments that support belonging and development, the impact extends beyond employee experience. It influences decision-making, innovation, and overall effectiveness. Diverse perspectives lead to more robust discussions and better outcomes. Psychological safety enables teams to surface risks earlier and experiment more freely. Emotionally intelligent leadership improves collaboration and reduces friction. These dynamics have direct commercial implications. Higher engagement is linked to increased productivity and profitability. Lower turnover reduces recruitment and onboarding costs. Stronger leadership pipelines reduce reliance on external hiring and create greater organisational resilience.  In this sense, the evolution of ERGs needs to go beyond a cultural shift to a strategic one The Future of Leadership Is Already Here Leadership is becoming less about authority and more about environment. The ability to create conditions where people feel safe, valued, and able to contribute is increasingly central to organisational success. ERGs provide a glimpse of what this future looks like. They are spaces where leadership emerges through relationships, where individuals learn by doing, and where culture is shaped through everyday interaction. The opportunity for organisations is to recognise this, support it, and integrate it into their broader systems. The question is no longer whether ERGs should exist. It is whether they are being used to their full potential. We know in many organisations, ERGs already contain the foundations of future leadership. The difference between the top organisations and the rest is whether that potential is recognised, supported, and scaled or left to operate at the margins. The organisations that get this right are not just strengthening inclusion They are building stronger leadership pipelines, improving retention, and creating more resilient performance. Get in touch at hello@wecreatespace.co to learn more about our ERG to Leadership Pipeline Programme. While you're here... We Create Space is a global learning platform and consultancy focused on workplace talent-development and community-building. Our human-centred approach creates space for people and organisations to thrive through leadership development, team learning experiences, data-backed belonging practices and bespoke content . Learn more We also organise FREE community events throughout the year! We offer a variety of ways to get involved - both online and in person. This is a great way to network and learn more about others' experiences, through in-depth discussion on an array of topics. You can find out what events we have coming up here . New ones are added all the time, so make sure you sign up to our newsletter so you can stay up to date!

How to navigate liminal moments as a natural and necessary part of growth, both personally and professionally. When we meet them with curiosity rather than resistance, starting over becomes less about loss, and more about learning to trust what is emerging. When Continuity Stops Making Sense. I’ve been noticing recently how uncomfortable we sometimes are with the idea of starting over. Not in theory - we tend to love it in theory. Fresh starts, new chapters, reinvention - these are ideas that show up constantly in our personal and professional conversations and in the way we talk about growth and change. But in practice, starting over rarely feels inspiring. It feels inconvenient. It feels inefficient. It feels like something has gone wrong. Because more often than not, starting over doesn’t arrive as a clean, intentional decision. It arrives as a disruption - a plan that no longer makes sense, a role that stops fitting, a version of your life that, on paper, still works but internally doesn’t. And there is often a moment - quiet, subtle, easy to dismiss - where you realise that continuing as you are is no longer an option. Not dramatically, not all at once, but enough to know that something needs to shift. What I’ve been seeing more and more, both in my own life and in conversations with others, is that these moments are not rare. They are not exceptions. They are not signs that something has gone off track. They are, in many ways, the mechanism through which change actually happens. People stepping away from careers they have spent years building. Re-evaluating relationships that once felt certain. Rethinking where and how they want to live. Questioning definitions of success that once felt solid but now feel misaligned. And yet, despite how common this is, we still tend to treat starting over as something that needs to be explained, justified, or quietly recovered from. There is an implicit narrative that progress should be linear, that growth should be additive, and that if we are moving “forward” correctly, we should not need to begin again. As someone who has started over and transformed myself more times than I can remember, I have made a conscious choice to stop thinking like this. Development Doesn’t Move in Straight Lines. The reality, of course, is far less tidy than that. Meaningful change does not always start from steady progression. It comes from moments where something loosens, breaks, or falls away - where the structure that once held things together no longer does. Developmental psychology has explored this for decades. Robert Kegan’s work on adult development suggests that growth is not simply about acquiring new skills or knowledge, but about transforming the way we make meaning of the world . And those transformations rarely happen without some form of disruption. Similarly, William Bridges’ transition model highlights that every change involves not just a new beginning, but an ending and a period of in-between - a phase where the old identity has dissolved, but the new one has not yet fully formed. This is the part we tend to resist the most. It is also the part where the real work happens. We might recognise this more intuitively if we look at creativity rather than careers. No meaningful creative process moves in a straight line. There are moments of clarity, followed by confusion, followed by iteration, followed by something that begins to take shape. The same is true of personal and professional evolution, even if we don’t always allow it to look that way. We expect coherence. We expect continuity. But development often requires discontinuity - a breaking apart of what was, so that something else can emerge in its place. The Identity Beneath the Change. Starting over is rarely just about changing direction. It is about changing identity. And this is where things become more complex, because identity is not only how we see ourselves - it is how we are seen, how we are recognised, and how we have learned to locate our value in the world. Roles, relationships, and environments all reinforce particular versions of who we are. When those structures shift, even in ways that are ultimately positive, there is often a destabilisation underneath them. We are no longer held in the same way. The feedback loops change. The story we've been telling ourselves about our place in the world begins to loosen. This is why starting over can feel like a kind of loss, even when it is chosen. Even when it is right. Even when it is necessary. There is often a quiet grief in letting go of a version of yourself that was once meaningful, once functional, once recognised. In work contexts, this can be particularly pronounced. Stepping away from a role, redefining a business, or shifting direction professionally is not just a strategic decision. It is an identity transition. And identity transitions cannot be rushed without consequence. The Space Between What Was, and What’s Next. This is the part of the process that tends to be least understood, and most quickly bypassed. The space between what was and what’s next is often experienced as uncertainty, but it is not simply a lack of clarity. It is a different kind of space altogether. It is a space where the old patterns no longer fully apply, but the new ones have not yet stabilised. It can feel unproductive, undefined, even uncomfortable. And because of that, there is a strong instinct - whether it be individually and organisationally - to move through it as quickly as possible. But in our work at We Create Space , this is often where the most meaningful transformation occurs. Not in the moment of decision, and not in the moment of arrival, but in the space in between. What we describe as "threshold moments" sits here - not as something abstract, but as something deeply practical. This is the phase where awareness increases, where assumptions can be questioned, where new perspectives begin to form. And yet, it only becomes useful if we are willing to stay with it long enough for something to emerge. There is a growing body of research in neuroscience that supports this. Creativity and insight are often linked to periods of rest and reflection rather than constant output - what is sometimes referred to as the brain’s default mode network. In other words, the mind requires space in order to reorganise itself. The same is true of identity. If we immediately rush to define what comes next, we often replicate what came before, simply in a different form. Courage, Failure and the Role of Curiosity. One of the reasons starting over feels so uncomfortable is because of how closely it is tied, culturally, to failure. Even in environments that claim to embrace experimentation, failure still carries emotional weight. It can feel like a rupture in identity, a questioning of competence, or a loss of credibility. But if we step back, failure is not an anomaly in development - it is a mechanism within it. Carol Dweck’s work on growth mindset reframes failure not as evidence of limitation, but as part of the learning process itself . In innovation theory, failure is often seen as necessary experimentation - a way of testing assumptions and refining direction. And yet, when we experience it personally, it rarely feels neutral. It feels exposing. It feels like something has gone wrong. This is where curiosity becomes an important counterbalance. Not as a way of bypassing discomfort, but as a way of relating to it differently. Instead of asking whether something has worked or not, we might ask what it has revealed. Instead of evaluating the outcome, we might explore the learning. This does not remove the challenge, but it shifts the orientation from judgement to exploration. Courage, in this context, is not about bold action or decisive movement forward. It is about the willingness to remain in the process without needing immediate resolution. It is about taking steps without full certainty, and allowing understanding to develop over time rather than requiring it upfront. This is a quieter form of courage, but it is often the one that makes transformation possible. The Creating Space Perspective. In our work at We Create Space , we often describe this kind of developmental moment through a simple cycle that helps individuals and organisations move through periods of disruption, uncertainty, and change - including those moments where we find ourselves starting over. Awareness - noticing the story I’m telling myself about what’s happening. Compassion - understanding that without immediately judging it. Connection - stepping back to see the bigger picture, beyond just me. Agency - choosing how I want to respond, rather than reacting automatically. Many people, like myself, first encounter this cycle during periods of disruption or burnout . But over time, it becomes a practical framework for navigating change more intentionally - not just when things break, but whenever something new is trying to emerge. Within The Creating Space Methodology , one of the core principles is that transformation requires space before it requires structure. This can feel counterintuitive, particularly in professional environments where momentum, output, and clarity are prioritised. But if we look at how systems actually evolve - biological, psychological, or organisational - there is often a phase where existing patterns loosen before new ones stabilise. This is not inefficiency. It is reorganisation. At the centre of this sits a simple practice: Pause → Listen → Connect → Act → Reflect This cycle encourages leaders to slow down reactive decision-making, expand perspective, and translate insight into more intentional action. Creating space, in this context, is not about doing nothing. It is about resisting the immediate urge to define, control, or resolve - allowing awareness to deepen so that what comes next is not just new, but genuinely different. This is where leadership begins to shift. Not towards having all the answers, but towards creating the conditions in which better questions - and better thinking - can emerge. Starting Over in Leadership and Systems. In organisational contexts, starting over is rarely framed in these terms. It is more often described as restructuring, transformation, or change management. But underneath those processes, the same dynamics are at play. Systems that have reached the limits of their current design. Cultures that no longer support the direction the organisation is trying to move in. Leadership models that were effective in one context but are no longer sufficient in another. Organisations find themselves navigating a growing gap between organisational ambition and what is consistently happening day-to-day . The challenge is that many organisations attempt to “start over” while maintaining the same underlying assumptions. They introduce new strategies without addressing identity. They implement new structures without creating space for reflection. And as a result, change remains surface-level. The form shifts, but the behaviour pattern underneath stays the same. This is why human-centred leadership is becoming the defining capability of high-performing organisations . In this context, Visionary Leadership requires something more fundamental . It requires the willingness to question not just what we are doing, but how we are making sense of what we are doing. It requires moving beyond short-term fixes and engaging with the deeper dynamics of the system. And this often begins with recognising when something is no longer working - not as a failure, but as an indication that a new phase of development is required. Where the Joy Actually Lives. At this point, it is worth returning to the question of joy. Because much of what we have explored so far does not immediately sound joyful. It sounds uncertain, uncomfortable, and at times destabilising. And yet, there is something else present in these moments that is easy to overlook. A sense of aliveness. A sense of openness. A sense that something new is possible, even if it is not yet clear what that looks like. This is not the kind of joy that comes from certainty or achievement. It is not loud or externally validated. It is quieter than that. It often shows up as a sense of lightness when something that no longer fits is released. As a spark of curiosity about what might come next. As a subtle shift from holding on… to letting go. I’ve been noticing that when I allow myself to stay in these moments a little longer - without rushing to resolve them - this quality becomes more visible. The pressure to have everything figured out begins to ease. The need to prove or justify begins to soften. And in its place, there is more room for exploration, for experimentation, and for a different kind of relationship with the future. Perhaps this is where the joy of starting over actually lives. Not in the outcome, but in the openness. Not in the certainty, but in the possibility. Pause and Reflect. For those navigating their own version of starting over - whether personally or professionally - it can be helpful to approach this phase with a degree of intentional reflection. Not to force clarity, but to create space for insight. You might begin by exploring questions such as: - What in my life or work no longer feels aligned, even if it still “works” on the surface? - What am I currently holding onto that may need to be released? - Where am I seeking certainty, rather than allowing space for something new to emerge? - What feels quietly energising or interesting, even if it doesn’t yet make logical sense? - How would I relate to this moment differently if I didn’t see it as a problem to solve? For leaders, additional questions might include: - Where might my organisation or team be outgrowing its current way of operating? - What assumptions are we carrying forward that may no longer serve us? - How can I create space - for myself and for others - to explore before defining next steps? - What would it look like to lead through uncertainty, rather than trying to eliminate it? These questions are not designed to produce immediate answers. They are designed to shift perspective. And often, that shift is what allows the next step to become visible. A Different Relationship with Beginning Again. If we return to where we started - that quiet moment where something no longer fits - we might begin to see it differently. Not as a disruption to be resolved, but as a signal that something is ready to change. Not as a loss of direction, but as an invitation to reorient. Because every time we begin again, we are not starting from nothing. We are starting from experience, from learning, from everything that has shaped us up to that point. Starting over, in that sense, is not a reset to zero. It is a continuation - just not in the way we expected. And perhaps the shift is this: instead of asking how to avoid these moments, or how to move through them as quickly as possible, we begin to ask how to work with them. How to stay open within them. How to recognise that within the uncertainty, there is also potential. Each day, in its own small way, offers that invitation. Not always dramatically. Not always visibly. But consistently. To begin again - not from a place of urgency, but from a place of awareness. And if we can learn to meet those moments with curiosity rather than resistance, we may find that starting over is not something to fear. But something to trust. Michael Stephens (he/they) is a consultant designing human-centred systems rooted in transformation and long-term growth. He works at the level of culture and relationships, examining how leadership is experienced across identity, wellbeing and performance. As Founder of We Create Space , he partners with global organisations to design leadership ecosystems that strengthen capability, deepen belonging and support sustainable success. While you're here... We Create Space is a global learning platform and consultancy focused on workplace talent-development and community-building. Our human-centred approach creates space for people and organisations to thrive through leadership development, team learning experiences, data-backed belonging practices and bespoke content . Learn more We also organise FREE community events throughout the year! We offer a variety of ways to get involved - both online and in person. This is a great way to network and learn more about others' experiences, through in-depth discussion on an array of topics. You can find out what events we have coming up here . New ones are added all the time, so make sure you sign up to our newsletter so you can stay up to date!

Syncing cycles with careers: How menstrual health policies in Mexico and LATAM can unlock female leadership potential. Women’s wellbeing at work in Latin America hinges on addressing the profound impact of menstrual cycles on productivity, where hormonal fluctuations create a hidden leadership gap that innovative policies in Mexico and beyond are starting to bridge for true gender equity. Backed by recent LATAM-focused research, these cycles reveal untapped potential when workplaces adapt, fostering inclusive cultures that retain top female talent and drive economic growth. This is more than a wellbeing issue, it has clear implications for performance, retention, and how leadership potential is recognised. When organisations overlook this, they are unintentionally creating environments where women are more likely to be judged at their lowest points rather than their full capability. Zona Docs - Empresas y menstruación: un reto pendiente para la equidad laboral Cycle Impacts in LATAM Workplaces Across Latin America, women's menstrual cycles profoundly shape workplace productivity, with 91% of Mexican women reporting reduced output due to monthly symptoms like pain, fatigue, and mood shifts, particularly during bleed and premenstrual phases, leading to 45% experiencing absenteeism or presenteeism that costs firms dearly in lost efficiency. Studies from Dalia Empower and Plenna highlight how these issues amplify in high-stress LATAM environments, where women already shoulder disproportionate unpaid care work, resulting in up to 33% productivity dips similar to European benchmarks but with fewer supports, as only 4 Mexican states have approved menstrual licenses despite national pushes. Hormonal symptoms correlate independently with negative performance perceptions, yet follicular phases offer peaks in energy and focus ideal for leadership tasks, a rhythm largely ignored in male-normed corporate cultures prevalent from Mexico City to São Paulo. Dalia Empower: Empresas ahorrarían dinero si implementaran políticas en torno a la menstruación The Leadership Gap Exposed Women make up a large proportion of the workforce across Latin America, yet only 30–40% reach executive roles. This is often linked to pay gaps, access to opportunity, and structural bias. But progression is also shaped by something more immediate: how performance shows up and how it is judged day to day. These structural challenges still matter as women earn around 70 cents to every male dollar and continue to face barriers such as limited access to childcare and flexible working. At the same time, research highlights a growing gap between how work is designed and how women actually experience it. In Mexico, for example, 75% of women say they would benefit from workload adjustments aligned to their cycles, yet stigma keeps this largely unspoken, reinforcing a level of invisibility in leadership spaces. World Bank Group - Women in the Workforce: A Pillar of Economic Development in Latin America and the Caribbean Menstrual health plays a role in this in ways that are rarely acknowledged. Symptoms such as fatigue, pain, and reduced concentration can affect how someone shows up at work, particularly in environments that rely heavily on visibility, consistency, and constant output. Over time, this creates a knock-on effect. Lower energy during key moments can reduce participation in high-visibility work. Fluctuations in performance can be interpreted as inconsistency. Ongoing presenteeism or burnout can impact confidence and willingness to put oneself forward. Individually, these moments may seem small. Taken together, they influence how potential is assessed and who is seen as ready for leadership. This shifts the conversation from a purely structural issue to something more immediate. If organisations are not accounting for how people actually experience work, they risk overlooking capable talent and reinforcing the very gaps they are trying to address. Emerging Policies and Initiatives Mexico leads LATAM with bold reforms, including CDMX's 2023 push for federal menstrual leave (up to 3 paid days/month via IMSS/ISSSTE certification for dysmenorrhea), alongside 2025 proposals for 10 days off for gender violence victims and preventive health days, signaling a shift toward cycle-aware labor laws. Nationally, just 4 states offer licenses, but corporate pilots show promise: firms with menstrual policies cut absenteeism by one shift/year per woman and boost productivity, potentially saving $92,000 MXN annually per 100 female employees through flex hours, education, and supplies. Demand is strong with 48% seeking licenses and 75% wanting flexibility. Broader initiatives like World Bank-backed programs in Brazil (Bolsa Familia aiding 31M women, spurring 25% employment growth) and anti-harassment mandates underscore regional momentum, though implementation lags in rural or informal sectors. Basham News - the congress of mexico city approves the proposal for "menstrual leave". Mindfulness and Inclusive Strategies Mindfulness tools like cycle-tracking apps empower LATAM women to sync tasks like analytical work in high-estrogen phases and rest in low phases with reducing symptom impacts by 25% and enhancing leadership presence, as Flo data affirms across cultures. Companies can integrate this via manager training on non-disclosing supports (e.g., adaptive scheduling, wellness kits), mirroring Create Space's relational leadership ethos to build psychological safety and belonging, where women report 69% better preparedness. In Mexico's dynamic economy, pairing policies with self-compassion practices counters unpaid labor burdens, turning cycles from liability to strength for sustained female leadership. National Library of Medicine - Menstrual cycle-associated symptoms and workplace productivity in US employees: A cross-sectional survey of users of the Flo mobile phone app Closing the Gap for LATAM Leaders Addressing women’s wellbeing at work is often positioned as a cultural or benefits conversation. In reality, it is a performance and leadership issue that sits much closer to the core of how organisations operate than many realise. When workplaces are designed around a narrow, standardised experience of productivity, they risk overlooking how people actually perform at their best. The result is not only lost output in the short term, but missed potential over time. Talent is underestimated, confidence is eroded, and leadership pipelines narrow in ways that are difficult to see but easy to feel. The organisations that move ahead will be those that are willing to rethink this by creating environments where flexibility, trust, and openness are built into how work gets done. This includes equipping managers to lead with greater awareness, normalising conversations that have traditionally been avoided, and designing systems that reflect the realities of the workforce rather than expecting people to adapt to them. In fast-growing and competitive markets across Latin America, it is a strategic advantage. Organisations that take this seriously will be better positioned to retain talent, strengthen leadership capability, and build cultures where people can perform consistently over time. The question is no longer whether to act, but whether organisations are prepared to evolve how performance, potential, and leadership are truly understood. From Training to Capability: The Create Space Approach. High-performing organisations are increasingly moving away from one-off workshops toward integrated leadership ecosystems. Human-centred leadership models focus on behavioural change, cultural awareness, and psychological safety rather than only knowledge transfer. The Create Space Methodology develops leadership capability through four core elements: awareness, compassion, connection, and agency. Together, these elements support behavioural change, inclusive culture, and sustainable performance across global teams. Programmes built on this approach typically combine leadership training, inclusion education, community-based learning, and culture insights in order to create measurable impact across multiple levels of the organisation. The objective is not awareness alone. The objective is to cultivate the conditions that allow individuals and teams to perform at their highest level. Book a Strategy Conversation If your organisation is investing in leadership development across Mexico or LATAM, the key question is not whether to invest, but how to invest effectively. We Create Space supports organisations across the region to build human-centred leadership capability, inclusive culture, and sustainable performance through programmes designed for the realities of Latin American workplaces. To explore how the Creating Space methodology, leadership programmes, or women-centred inclusion training could support your organisation, book a strategy call with our Mexico-based team. hello@wecreatespace.co https://wecreatespace.co https://wecreatespace.co/contact

An anonymous trans professional shares how rising anti-trans rhetoric has shaped their decision to hide their identity at work. N.B. The author of this article has requested to remain anonymous in order to safeguard their privacy and remain stealth at work. Around eighteen months ago I made a career change. For the first time I was able to start afresh and exist simply as ‘me’ in the workplace, rather than as a trans person.  There are reasons why this was possible, circumstances that highlight tensions around privilege in the trans+ community. My appearance is such that I ‘pass’ as a cis person and I had completed all levels of trans admin with a GRC (Gender Recognition Certificate/Birth Certificate) in place legally protecting my identity and acquired legal sex. In community this is known as ‘being stealth’ – a phrase that evokes from the outset a sense of hiding in plain sight, of MI5 level spy mission, of pretence and shame. It’s a phrase that sits uncomfortably with me due to those connotations. For a trans person ‘being stealth’ arises not from a desire for trickery, but instead, for a quiet life and more increasingly, for self-protection in a trans-volatile world.  I have spent years promoting the concept within DEI of being able to bring ‘your whole self to work’. Yet I never really interrogated what that meant for a minoritised or vulnerable person. When I physically transitioned in my previous workplace, I had no choice but to be out and proud. I took the new found confidence that comes with the initial stages of a long-awaited transition and vowed to be a visible queer and trans person with a successful career. I had a public facing role and I wanted to be a positive example for how a trans person could thrive in a world that, at that time, was becoming more accepting of difference. I lived and championed ‘bringing my whole self to work’ because it was a coping mechanism for having no choice. After six years I burned out.  When the opportunity presented itself I left that career and sought out new adventures, with the commitment to remain stealth and experience colleagues getting to know me as I had always seen myself, with no knowledge of my transness. My new job took me into a highly gendered world that is not known for its tolerance of queerness – or so I presumed. I certainly didn’t expect to come across other trans folk, and yet of course I have because we exist everywhere.  There is no rule book written on how to navigate stealth life, especially when you remain deeply proud of who you are. When you come face to face with another community member there is a decision to make; do I remain hidden even from my own, or do I risk my privacy and let them know discreetly we share something in common?  I chose the latter, in a very clumsy way. I found a quiet moment to nervously introduce myself, ask them their pronouns and hastily whisper “I’m just like you but I choose not to tell anyone, I’m always here if you need anything”. I cringe still even as I write that. I’m not even sure if they understood what I was insinuating, or whether I left them confused wondering what the hell I was trying to say! I forgot about the interaction, until it came to the work Xmas party, then became intensely paranoid they would get drunk and out me to others.  There lies the crux of navigating a stealth existence – the shame and fear of someone finding out, as though my very identity is something to be ashamed of. Yet once that decision had been made, the fear became: “What if people are upset if they find out?” “What if they are angry thinking I was trying to trick them?” I felt myself getting stuck in a hole I was digging for myself.  When we (folk working in DEI) deliver workshops or talks on psychological safety, this is exactly what we are trying to describe. Psychological safety is often misunderstood as creating a space where everyone feels safe, that no one is challenged and a person can speak without fear of judgement or negative consequence, especially to those positioned as superior in a workplace. Psychological safety is much more than that, it is inseparably linked to the unpredictability of our worlds. It’s the precious ability to turn up and show up, without managing the internal dialogue of ‘being found out’ to be something that others may judge you as not being.  My new workplace had policies in place for supporting trans people, there are human rights and employment protections in place, but with no visible representation of people like me in positions of influence – I was not ready to bring every aspect of my identity to work with me. During 2025, the trans community in the UK experienced the rare occurrence of a minority identity having its rights taken away. A culmination of various challenges to the law (by a discriminatory movement that literally created its own case law tribunal by tribunal) led to a Supreme Court Judgement on the definition of sex for the sole purpose of the Equality Act 2010 (UK). Just at a time when I was a) stealth in my day job and b) in an industry directly affected by the misinformed kneejerk reactions to this judgement.  Overnight I found myself in a trans hostile industry, where the rights of a tiny community were erased, without any consultation or explanation. I was surrounded by cis apologists of varying inclusion teams who were part of my industry’s governing bodies, lots of shrugging of shoulders and shaking of heads, but with no outspoken challenges or overt allyship. The anti-racism movement talks about white fragility and white tears. Without appropriating the Black experience, I think I now understand this sentiment more than ever.  Yet amongst the sighs and handwringing, I find myself, a hidden trans person also unable to speak out, now through fear that my outspokenness may give me away. With the thought that it is better to remain hidden, because at least this way I get to be in rooms where cis people talk about my community as though they think they know what is best for us. To exist in a space where people speak freely because they feel safe in the perception that we are not listening (or that close friends, partners or relatives may not be listening). This is a new challenge to the definition and scope of psychological safety. Where once going stealth was a choice, since April 2025 and the uncertainty that continues, it is now a necessity. I have observed in real time just how unwilling people are to speak out against injustice and protect others when it comes to the crunch. I have learned that protections and celebrations of diversity, of encouraging all people to ‘bring your whole self to work’ are too often a radical ask made by those unlikely to be at risk. As a society we have championed legislation and guidance that encouraged visibility in the workplace. In doing so we enticed the vulnerable into these spaces, promised protection and evolution, assuming that progress towards total inclusion for all would only advance, that there was no going backwards. We took these promises for granted.  What we now have is a tiny population of people who have learned that ‘equality’ is for some, not for all. Trans people have learned that allyship has its limits, especially when finances and reputation are threatened. I, as one trans person, have learned that hiding in plain sight, where I was once out and proud, is for the time being an act of survival. It feels like being forced into an ill-fitting closet that I never intended to visit.  I wanted to write this blog precisely because (in)visibility has consequences that others can never see or understand. Trans people like me exist in all aspects of life, and DEI needs to find ways to educate better on holistic inclusion regardless of who the target population is. We rely too much on willing participants to wear their identity on their sleeve, whilst for many to do so places them at high risk (trans+ people, LGBQ+, those undocumented, survivors of abuse, care experienced, disabled etc).  Yes, the ability to hide an oppressed identity is a privilege compared to others who cannot, but it is still no way to live. A note from WCS When an employee looks at their work environment and decides it’s no longer safe to be fully seen, it’s generally a decision that isn’t named in company updates, inclusion strategies, data dashboard or survey results. But a lack of reporting doesn’t mean it isn’t happening, and these undisclosed moments deserve your attention, especially if you claim the title of ally. Somewhere along the way, we’ve made allyship feel like something we offer to individuals. We show up for the colleague whose story we can empathise and connect with, but this article highlights the very real limits in that version of allyship which is purely relational. It asks, what happens when that person steps back or is no longer visible in the same way? Why does our support often fade with them? If allyship is only activated by presence, it will always fall short. At its core, allyship is rooted in the integrity of doing the right thing no matter who is in the room. What is needed to achieve that then is an immediate shift from seeing allyship as something we extend to individuals to a system we operate in daily. We have to embrace a mindset that questions the everyday norms, systems, and behaviours that shape whether someone feels able to show up at all. "The necessity for cis people to be active allies cannot be underscored enough as trans rights and lives are threatened globally. We have the opportunity to do something about this now. Today. Right at this moment. Let us use our voice and power. In the words of Audre Lorde, “My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you.” - Jon-Paul Vicari, WCS Managing Director Below are some additional resources to help make that shift. We urge you to take advantage of them. Prioritising Trans Allyship in our Queer Future. Fostering trans community care amidst anti-trans legislation. Community Building 101 | Trans+ History Week: Allyship Through Action. Trans Advocates Win Landmark UK Tribunal Case. How to Challenge Nonbinaryphobia. Our Top 10 Transgender Training Programmes. While you're here... We Create Space is a global learning platform and consultancy focused on workplace talent-development and community-building. Our human-centred approach creates space for people and organisations to thrive through leadership development, team learning experiences, data-backed belonging practices and bespoke content . Learn more We also organise FREE community events throughout the year! We offer a variety of ways to get involved - both online and in person. This is a great way to network and learn more about others' experiences, through in-depth discussion on an array of topics. You can find out what events we have coming up here . New ones are added all the time, so make sure you sign up to our newsletter so you can stay up to date!

Investment in leadership development is growing across Latin America, yet many organisations continue to prioritise technical expertise over the behavioural capabilities required for high performance and sustainable growth. Across Latin America, organisations are investing more than ever in leadership development. Companies expanding across Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina are operating in increasingly complex, globalised, and fast-moving environments. As markets become more competitive and organisational structures grow more sophisticated, leadership capability has moved from being a human resources concern to a strategic priority. As a result, budgets for coaching, executive education, and management training continue to increase year after year. However, a critical question remains. Are organisations investing in the leadership capabilities that truly drive performance, or are they reinforcing outdated models that ultimately increase cost, turnover, and operational risk? For senior leaders, this is not a theoretical discussion. Leadership quality directly influences retention, productivity, innovation, and organisational culture. When leadership capability does not evolve at the same pace as business growth, the financial consequences become measurable. Research from the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report identifies emotional intelligence, resilience, analytical thinking, and social influence among the most critical skills required for the future workforce. Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends research similarly shows that organisations with more human-centred leadership models consistently outperform peers in engagement, adaptability, and long-term performance outcomes. The evidence across multiple studies is consistent. Leadership capability matters. The more important question for organisations operating in Latin America today is not whether to invest in leadership, but which leadership capabilities actually drive sustainable performance. Growth in LATAM Is Increasing Leadership Risk, Not Only Opportunity Latin America is undergoing rapid transformation across multiple dimensions. Digital adoption has accelerated significantly, regional companies are scaling into multinational operations, and global organisations are expanding across Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking markets. Nearshoring trends are increasing investment in Mexico and Central America, while hybrid and remote work structures are changing how teams are managed across borders. Growth creates opportunity, but it also exposes capability gaps that were less visible in smaller or more localised organisations. Many companies continue to promote leaders primarily based on technical performance. The strongest engineer becomes the engineering manager, and the highest-performing salesperson becomes the regional director. While this approach rewards competence, it often overlooks the relational, behavioural, and cultural skills required to lead people effectively at scale. As organisations grow, these gaps become increasingly expensive. Replacing an employee can cost between 1.5 and 2 times their annual salary, and more than 200% for senior roles, according to workforce cost studies on turnover and retention. Gallup research also shows that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement , directly linking leadership quality to productivity, retention, and performance outcomes. In fast-growth markets, leadership capability is therefore not only a talent issue. It is a cost issue, a performance issue, and increasingly a strategic risk. Cultural Context: Authority Works, Until It Doesn’t Any analysis of leadership development in LATAM must consider cultural context. Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions research shows that many Latin American countries score relatively high on Power Distance , meaning hierarchy and authority are generally more accepted than in Northern European cultures. In practice, hierarchical structures can provide clarity, speed, and stability, particularly in fast-growth environments where decision-making needs to be efficient. Authority-based leadership models often work well when organisations are small, when roles are clearly defined, or when operational pressure is high. However, these same structures can limit psychological safety, reduce upward feedback, and discourage innovation when organisations become larger and more complex. Google’s Project Aristotle research identified psychological safety as the strongest predictor of high-performing teams, ahead of experience, seniority, or technical ability. When employees do not feel safe to speak up, challenge ideas, or admit mistakes, performance declines even in technically strong teams. For organisations operating across multiple countries, cultures, and reporting structures, the ability to create trust and open communication becomes a critical leadership skill. The challenge for LATAM organisations is not to remove hierarchy, but to evolve leadership capability within existing cultural realities. The Real Skills Gap: Technical Strength, Relational Weakness Leadership programmes in the region still tend to focus heavily on technical and knowledge-based development. Common investments include strategy training, compliance education, executive coaching, and MBA-style programmes. These interventions are valuable, but they often fail to address the behavioural capabilities required for modern leadership. The World Economic Forum continues to highlight resilience, emotional intelligence, and social influence as future-critical skills for leaders operating in complex environments. In rapidly scaling organisations across LATAM, leaders are frequently promoted because of their ability to deliver results, but they are not always equipped to manage conflict, give feedback, lead diverse teams, or navigate cultural differences. The result is a predictable pattern that includes burnout, disengagement, high turnover, reduced innovation, and increased HR escalation. Leadership development that ignores relational capability does not only limit culture. It creates hidden operational cost. Inclusion Is Not a Social Initiative, It Is a Performance Driver Inclusive leadership is often framed as a cultural or social objective rather than a performance variable. However, research consistently shows that o rganisations with inclusive cultures achieve stronger engagement , better collaboration, and improved financial results. Human-centred leadership practices are associated with stronger retention, improved trust, and more consistent performance outcomes. This becomes particularly relevant when considering identity-informed leadership capability, including gender-aware leadership practices. Women experience significantly higher burnout rates in environments where leadership does not account for wellbeing, flexibility, and cultural expectations. Organisations that invest in diversity without investing in leadership capability often see limited impact. Inclusion becomes effective only when leaders have the behavioural skills required to create psychological safety, trust, and sustainable performance. Identity-informed leadership does not weaken authority. It strengthens performance by improving retention, engagement, and long-term productivity. Leadership Cannot Be Developed Only at the Top Another structural challenge across many organisations in LATAM is that leadership development is often concentrated at the executive level, while mid-level leaders receive limited support. Deloitte research shows that organisations require leadership capability distributed across multiple levels rather than concentrated only at the top. Mid-level leaders frequently manage cross-border teams, global reporting structures, cultural differences, and high operational pressure. These roles have a direct impact on employee experience, yet they often receive the least formal development. Without adequate support, mid-level leaders become bottlenecks rather than multipliers. Organisations that perform consistently well tend to build leadership ecosystems, not isolated programmes. From Training to Capability: The Create Space Approach. High-performing organisations are increasingly moving away from one-off workshops toward integrated leadership ecosystems. Human-centred leadership models focus on behavioural change, cultural awareness, and psychological safety rather than only knowledge transfer. The Create Space Methodology develops leadership capability through four core elements: awareness, compassion, connection, and agency. Together, these elements support behavioural change, inclusive culture, and sustainable performance across global teams. Programmes built on this approach typically combine leadership training, inclusion education, community-based learning, and culture insights in order to create measurable impact across multiple levels of the organisation. The objective is not awareness alone. The objective is to cultivate the conditions that allow individuals and teams to perform at their highest level. Book a Strategy Conversation If your organisation is investing in leadership development across Mexico or LATAM, the key question is not whether to invest, but how to invest effectively. We Create Space supports organisations across the region to build human-centred leadership capability, inclusive culture, and sustainable performance through programmes designed for the realities of Latin American workplaces. To explore how the Creating Space methodology, leadership programmes, or women-centred inclusion training could support your organisation, book a strategy call with our Mexico-based team. hello@wecreatespace.co https://wecreatespace.co https://wecreatespace.co/contact

Why human-centred leadership is becoming the defining capability of high-performing organisations and how to go about building those important communication skills. Emotional Intelligence for Modern Leaders. Leadership has always been emotionally demanding. Yet the emotional expectations placed on leaders today are significantly different from those of even a decade ago. Workplaces are on the whole more diverse. Teams are more distributed. Organisational structures are flatter, faster, and more complex. Employees increasingly expect not only competence from their leaders, but humanity - the ability to listen, to understand context, to navigate difficult conversations with maturity, and to build environments where people feel psychologically safe enough to contribute their best work. In this context, emotional intelligence has moved from a “nice-to-have” leadership trait to a core organisational capability. This shift is not merely cultural. It is structural. Research suggests that manager behaviour accounts for roughly 70% of the variance in employee engagement . When leaders demonstrate empathy, clarity, and self-regulation, teams are more likely to remain engaged, collaborative, and resilient. When they do not, even highly skilled teams struggle to perform consistently. Emotional intelligence therefore sits at the intersection of culture, leadership effectiveness, and organisational performance . Understanding how to develop it - and how to embed it into leadership practice - is becoming one of the most important conversations in modern leadership development. The Cultural Context of Leadership Has Changed. Leadership does not operate in a vacuum. It evolves in response to the social and organisational context in which it exists. Over the past decade, several major shifts have reshaped how leadership is experienced inside organisations: - Increased attention to psychological safety and employee wellbeing - Greater expectations around inclusive leadership and belonging - More open conversations around mental health and burnout - Rapidly changing workplace structures , including hybrid and remote work - A workforce that increasingly expects transparency, empathy, and accountability These shifts have not simply added new responsibilities for leaders. They have fundamentally changed the nature of leadership itself. Traditional models of authority often emphasised decisiveness, expertise, and control. Modern leadership increasingly emphasises facilitation, emotional awareness, and relational intelligence . In other words, leadership is becoming less about directing people and more about designing environments where people can perform at their best . At We Create Space, we often describe this as creating the conditions for contribution - a principle central to the Creating Space Methodology , which examines how leadership behaviour, team dynamics and organisational systems interact to shape culture. It is about shaping the cultural conditions that determine whether people feel able to speak up, share ideas, admit mistakes, and collaborate effectively. And this is where emotional intelligence becomes critical. Psychological Safety: The Foundation of High-Performing Teams. One of the most important concepts in modern organisational research is psychological safety . Organisational scholar Amy Edmondson defines psychological safety as the shared belief that a team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking . In simple terms, it means people feel able to speak openly without fear of humiliation or punishment. In environments where psychological safety is high, employees are more likely to: - Share ideas and challenge assumptions - Admit mistakes early - Ask for help when needed - Offer constructive feedback - Experiment with new approaches A Google study found that psychological safety was the single most important factor in high-performing teams . Yet psychological safety does not emerge automatically. It is created through leadership behaviour. Employees continuously observe how leaders respond to mistakes, feedback, disagreement, conflict, and uncertainty. These everyday moments communicate powerful signals about what is safe to say - and what is not. Psychological safety can be understood as “a culture of rewarded vulnerability” , where people feel able to contribute meaningfully and operate in an “offensive mode of performance,” rather than constantly protecting themselves. When vulnerability is rewarded rather than punished, employees are far more likely to bring their full intelligence and creativity to their work. Emotional intelligence plays a crucial role in making this possible. A useful reflection for leaders might be this: When someone challenges your idea in a meeting, what does your immediate reaction signal to the rest of the room? What Emotional Intelligence Actually Means. The term emotional intelligence has become widely used in leadership development, but it is sometimes misunderstood. Psychologist Daniel Goleman describes emotional intelligence as "a set of interrelated capabilities that shape how individuals understand and manage emotions - both their own and those of others" . Five core components are commonly identified: 1. Self-Awareness The ability to recognise one’s own emotional state and understand how it influences behaviour. 2. Self-Regulation The capacity to manage emotional reactions rather than responding impulsively. 3. Empathy The ability to understand the emotional experiences of others and respond appropriately. 4. Relationship Management The skill of navigating interpersonal dynamics with clarity, respect, and constructive communication. 5. Motivation The ability to remain purpose-driven and resilient even in the face of challenge. These capabilities are not abstract personality traits. They are practical leadership skills that shape everyday behaviour - how meetings are run, how feedback is given, and how conflict is addressed. Therefore, emotional intelligence is not simply about being “nice.” It is about developing the awareness and maturity required to lead people effectively. Emotional Intelligence as a Leadership Multiplier. One useful way to think about emotional intelligence is as a multiplier of leadership impact . Technical expertise and strategic thinking remain important. However, without emotional intelligence, even highly capable leaders struggle to mobilise teams effectively. When emotional intelligence is present, several organisational benefits become more visible. 1. Better Innovation and Problem-Solving Teams are far more likely to challenge assumptions and share ideas when they feel psychologically safe. Emotionally intelligent leaders encourage curiosity rather than defensiveness, allowing teams to surface risks earlier and explore creative solutions. 2. Higher Engagement and Retention Employees are more likely to remain engaged when they feel respected and heard. Research consistently shows that employees do not leave organisations as often as they leave poor leadership relationships . 3. Stronger Decision-Making Emotionally intelligent leaders create space for dissenting perspectives. This improves decision quality by ensuring that alternative viewpoints are considered. 4. Greater Adaptability Organisations that treat mistakes as learning opportunities are able to adapt faster. In complex environments, the ability to learn quickly often becomes a competitive advantage. Together, these dynamics reinforce an important insight: emotional intelligence is not only about interpersonal relationships. It is about organisational performance . Leadership Behaviours That Build Emotional Intelligence in Teams. Developing emotional intelligence is not simply an internal process. It must translate into visible leadership behaviours. Below are five practices that consistently strengthen emotionally intelligent leadership cultures. 1. Executive Culture and Compassionate Leadership Leadership culture is not defined by statements on a website. It is defined by behaviour. Employees watch closely for signals about what is truly valued within an organisation. Leaders who demonstrate fairness, availability, accountability, and collaboration create environments where these behaviours become normalised. Compassionate leadership does not mean avoiding difficult conversations. It means approaching those conversations with clarity, respect, and accountability . Research suggests that inclusive leadership behaviours - such as inviting input, acknowledging different perspectives, and modelling humility - directly contribute to psychological safety and team innovation . 2. Executive Modelling: What Gets Modelled Gets Mimicked Leadership behaviour spreads through organisations quickly. When senior leaders demonstrate curiosity, accountability, and emotional awareness, these behaviours tend to cascade throughout the organisation. Conversely, when leaders respond defensively or dismiss feedback, these behaviours often become embedded in the broader culture. Simple practices can make a significant difference. For example, adopting a meeting structure based on the “three A’s” : - Ask: Seek alternative perspectives or disconfirming evidence - Acknowledge: Recognise contributions from others - Account: Clarify next steps and responsibilities These behaviours signal that leadership is open, reflective, and collaborative. 3. Building a Speak-Up Culture Many organisations claim to value open communication. In practice, however, employees often hesitate to challenge leadership decisions. Emotionally intelligent leadership actively protects constructive dissent. Leaders can strengthen speak-up cultures by: - Asking for opposing viewpoints - Rotating facilitation roles in meetings - Tracking which voices are heard regularly - Encouraging respectful disagreement When teams believe that disagreement is safe, organisations benefit from more robust conversations and better decisions. 4. Reframing Mistakes as Learning Moments Mistakes are inevitable in complex organisations. What matters is how leaders respond to them. In psychologically unsafe environments, mistakes are often hidden. This delays learning and increases organisational risk. Emotionally intelligent leaders instead treat mistakes as data . Practices such as blameless post-mortems , reflection sessions, and transparent leadership accountability allow teams to learn quickly without creating a culture of fear. A simple leadership phrase can make a significant difference: “I got that wrong - here’s what I learned.” When leaders demonstrate humility in this way, it signals that growth matters more than perfection. 5. Sustainable Leadership Leadership roles can be emotionally demanding. Leaders frequently support teams through stress, conflict, and uncertainty. Without appropriate boundaries, this can lead to compassion fatigue . Emotionally intelligent leadership therefore includes the ability to balance care with clarity. Some helpful practices include: - Protecting reflective time in the calendar - Establishing boundaries around availability - Encouraging peer consultation among leaders - Signposting appropriate wellbeing resources Leadership is not about absorbing everyone else’s emotions. It is about creating systems that support healthy work environments. Practical Practices Leaders Can Apply Immediately. Developing emotional intelligence does not require complex training programmes. Often it begins with small behavioural shifts. Here are several practices leaders can begin experimenting with immediately. Practice 1: Pause Before Responding When confronted with difficult feedback or disagreement, pause briefly before responding. This moment of reflection allows the emotional reaction to settle, enabling a more thoughtful response. Practice 2: Invite Alternative Views Regularly ask questions such as: “What perspective might we be missing?”“Who sees this differently?” These prompts signal that diverse viewpoints are welcome. Practice 3: Track Participation Pay attention to whose voices are heard in meetings. If certain individuals remain silent, actively invite their contributions. Practice 4: Acknowledge Courage Recognise employees who share mistakes, offer feedback, or challenge assumptions constructively. Positive reinforcement encourages these behaviours to become cultural norms. Practice 5: Model Vulnerability Share learning moments openly. When leaders demonstrate humility and growth, teams are more likely to do the same. The Future of Leadership Is Relational. For much of the twentieth century, leadership development focused primarily on strategic thinking and technical expertise. These capabilities remain important. But they are no longer sufficient on their own. Modern organisations operate within complex, rapidly changing environments where collaboration, adaptability, and innovation are essential. These capabilities depend heavily on human relationships - trust, communication, empathy, and psychological safety. In this sense, emotional intelligence is not simply a personal skill. It is a systemic leadership capability . Leaders shape the emotional climate of their teams every day through the way they respond to challenge, handle uncertainty, and engage with others. Small behavioural signals accumulate over time, eventually forming the culture of the organisation. And culture, more than strategy alone, often determines whether organisations succeed or struggle. A Reflection for Leaders. If emotional intelligence shapes the environments leaders create, then one simple question becomes useful: What behaviour will your team see more deliberately from you next week? Will it be curiosity? Humility? Clarity? Encouragement? Leadership culture is not built through occasional training sessions. It is built through everyday behaviour. Each interaction becomes an opportunity to reinforce the kind of environment we want our teams to experience. Final Thoughts. Emotional intelligence is sometimes described as a “soft skill.” In reality, it is one of the most structurally important leadership capabilities organisations can develop. When leaders cultivate emotional awareness, regulate their reactions, and create environments where people feel safe to contribute, organisations become more innovative, more resilient, and more sustainable. At We Create Space , our leadership programmes, retreats and team learning experiences are designed to help organisations build these capabilities intentionally. Through human-centred leadership development, psychological safety practices, and culture insights, we support leaders in designing environments where people and performance can thrive together. Because ultimately, leadership is not only about results. It is about the environments we create - and the people those environments allow to flourish. While you're here... We Create Space is a global learning platform and consultancy focused on workplace talent-development and community-building. Our human-centred approach creates space for people and organisations to thrive through leadership development, team learning experiences, data-backed belonging practices and bespoke content . Learn more We also organise FREE community events throughout the year! We offer a variety of ways to get involved - both online and in person. This is a great way to network and learn more about others' experiences, through in-depth discussion on an array of topics. You can find out what events we have coming up here . New ones are added all the time, so make sure you sign up to our newsletter so you can stay up to date!

Visionary leadership isn’t about belief systems, rituals, or metaphysics. But it does require something deeper: the capacity to move beyond ego and orient leadership toward meaning, responsibility, and long-term impact. Do Visionary Leaders Need to Be Spiritual? Let’s begin clearly: no. Visionary leaders do not need to be spiritual. They do not need to meditate at dawn, attend silent retreats, read mystical texts, or identify with any particular religious or metaphysical tradition. Spiritual belief is not a prerequisite for visionary leadership. But what is required is more demanding - and far more interesting. Visionary leadership requires the capacity to transcend ego, to orient decisions beyond personal gain, and to act in service of futures one may never personally inhabit. Whether we describe that orientation as spirituality, systems thinking, moral philosophy, or existential responsibility is, in many ways, a question of language. The developmental demand underneath it remains the same. Spirituality, Leadership and the Language We Use. When people hear the word “spiritual,” they often picture incense, meditation cushions, quiet rituals, perhaps a retreat somewhere warm. I say that with genuine affection - I have incense burning as I write this and I've organised many retreats in the past . Many spiritual traditions have influenced my own thinking, even though I don’t subscribe to any single doctrine. But I am certain that spirituality, at its core, has never been about props. It has always been about orientation: how we relate to meaning, impermanence, and responsibility beyond the self. The aesthetics are optional. The inner work is not. This distinction matters because the language we use can sometimes obscure the deeper developmental work leadership requires. The moment spirituality enters leadership conversations, some people lean in while others instinctively lean away. Yet if we strip away the labels, what visionary leadership actually demands is something that most philosophical traditions - spiritual or secular - have been exploring for centuries: the ability to move beyond the immediate needs of the self and consider the long-term wellbeing of the whole. Viktor Frankl, writing after surviving the Holocaust, argued that human beings are fundamentally driven by meaning . When leaders orient themselves around meaning rather than recognition, their time horizon expands. Immediate validation becomes less compelling than lasting contribution. This shift is not necessarily spiritual, but it is deeply existential. When Leadership Is Driven by Survival. My own exploration of this question began not with theory but with burnout . For years I was rewarded for speed, responsiveness, strategic thinking and visible impact. From the outside, it looked like effective leadership. Internally, however, I was operating from urgency - a subtle but persistent activation of the nervous system that blurred the line between dedication and compulsion. Burnout was not simply exhaustion. It was identity destabilisation. The version of myself that had been validated through productivity was no longer sustainable. Recovery required confronting an uncomfortable truth: much of my leadership had been driven by fear of irrelevance, by over-responsibility, and by the need to prove value. None of these are inherently malicious motivations. They are profoundly human ones. But they are also ego-protective. And ego-protective leadership, even when well-intentioned, is rarely visionary. Ego does not always present as arrogance. More often it appears as hyper-functioning, control, reactivity, or the inability to rest. Many leaders recognise this pattern: the feeling that if they slow down, everything might fall apart. The irony, of course, is that systems built on urgency eventually do fall apart - because they are structurally unsustainable. Awareness: The Hidden Skill of Leadership. Research into emotional intelligence helps illuminate why this matters. Daniel Goleman identifies self-awareness and self-regulation as foundational leadership capacities . Yet these are not simply interpersonal skills; they are developmental thresholds. Developmental psychologist Robert Kegan describes leadership maturity as the ability to move from being subject to our internal narratives to being able to observe them . In other words, leaders must learn to recognise the stories driving their behaviour rather than unconsciously acting them out. Many spiritual traditions cultivate this same capacity. Eckhart Tolle famously wrote that “awareness is the greatest agent for change.” Regardless of one’s views on spirituality, the psychological principle holds: the ability to notice one’s internal reactions without immediately identifying with them changes how we act. Different traditions describe this ability differently. Psychology calls it meta-cognition. Systems theory might call it perspective. Spiritual traditions often call it presence. The vocabulary varies. The underlying skill is remarkably similar. Developing Presence and Awareness in Leadership. If awareness is one of the core capacities of visionary leadership, the natural question becomes: how do we develop it? For many leaders, awareness begins with learning to pause. Not to escape decision-making or responsibility, but to notice what is happening internally before reacting to it. Several practices can help cultivate this capacity - including reflective journaling, coaching conversations, therapy, and meditation. One simple starting point is a short presence practice used in many contemplative traditions: A simple awareness practice: Sit comfortably and bring attention to your breathing. Notice thoughts or emotions arising without trying to change them. When your attention wanders, gently bring it back to the breath. After a few minutes, ask yourself: What is currently driving my behaviour - urgency, fear, ego, or purpose? Even two or three minutes of deliberate awareness can create space between reaction and decision. And that space is often where leadership begins to change. The Creating Space Cycle. In our leadership work at We Create Space , we often describe this developmental shift through a simple cycle that helps leaders move from unconscious reaction toward intentional leadership. Awareness - noticing the internal narratives shaping our behaviour. Compassion - understanding those patterns without judgement. Connection - recognising how our leadership affects others. Agency - consciously choosing how we want to lead. Many leaders first encounter this cycle during periods of disruption or burnout. But over time it becomes a practical framework for developing more intentional leadership. Visionary leadership often begins with something deceptively simple: learning to notice. The Leadership Shift from Ego to Stewardship. The real developmental shift in visionary leadership is the move from ego to stewardship. Survival leadership asks a familiar set of questions: How do I stay relevant? How do I protect my position? How do I prove my value? Visionary leadership asks something quite different: What am I building? Who will benefit from this long after I’m gone? What responsibility do I hold toward the future? This shift fundamentally changes the way leaders make decisions. Instead of reacting to short-term pressure, they begin designing systems with longevity in mind. Instead of protecting identity, they begin protecting the integrity of the system. Architecture becomes a useful metaphor here. A building that appears impressive but cannot withstand pressure is poorly designed. The same is true of leadership. When ego becomes the primary structural support, collapse is inevitable. When awareness, responsibility and long-term thinking become part of the design, resilience increases. The Role Spiritual Traditions Can Play. Spiritual traditions can be powerful training grounds for these capacities — not because they offer mystical answers, but because many of them cultivate humility, patience and perspective. Stoic philosophy encouraged daily reflection on mortality and impermanence . Buddhist traditions emphasise non-attachment and awareness. Christian contemplative practices explore humility and surrender. Each of these traditions, in different ways, invites people to step outside the immediate demands of ego and consider the larger context of their lives. But spirituality is only one pathway. Leaders can develop the same capacities through therapy, philosophy, coaching, systems thinking, reflective practice or community accountability. The requirement is not adherence to a belief system. The requirement is developmental growth. For the avoidance of doubt, I am not suggesting that quarterly forecasting should be replaced with collective chanting. Finance teams can relax. Visionary leadership still requires financial discipline, operational clarity and measurable outcomes. Vision without structure is unstable. Even incense burns better in a container. The Risk of Spiritual Bypass. It is also important to acknowledge that spirituality can sometimes be misused. When unexamined, it can become a way of avoiding accountability or romanticising suffering. Leaders who rely solely on intuition without grounding their decisions in evidence risk creating fragile organisations. Visionary leadership therefore requires integration. Depth must be paired with structure. Awareness must translate into design. Ethical intention must be supported by governance, feedback loops and measurable impact. Spirit without system becomes abstraction. System without depth becomes extraction. Leadership architecture exists in the space where the two meet. Leadership as an Existential Responsibility. Ultimately, visionary leadership is less about spirituality than it is about existential responsibility. Organisations do not exist in isolation. They are embedded within social, economic and ecological systems. The decisions leaders make ripple outward - affecting employees, communities and future generations. Hannah Arendt distinguished between power and domination , arguing that genuine power arises from legitimacy rather than coercion. Legitimacy emerges when leaders align their actions with shared values and collective wellbeing. This alignment requires ongoing self-reflection. Leaders must ask not only whether they are succeeding, but how and at what cost. In a culture increasingly focused on visibility and performance, this kind of reflection can feel countercultural. Yet it is precisely what allows leaders to move beyond survival thinking and into long-term design. So, Do Visionary Leaders Need to Be Spiritual? No. Visionary leaders do not need to be spiritual in a doctrinal sense. They do not need to adopt any particular philosophy, ritual or belief system. But they do need to cultivate the capacities that many spiritual traditions - at their best - seek to develop: awareness, humility, patience and responsibility beyond the self. Whether we call that spiritual maturity, psychological development or leadership evolution is less important than whether we embody it. The real distinction is not between spiritual and non-spiritual leaders. It is between leaders driven primarily by ego and those oriented toward the future. If visionary leadership asks us to build beyond ourselves, then the essential question is not about incense, rituals or belief systems. It is about orientation. Are we leading to preserve ego, or to serve something larger? The answer to that question ultimately determines the architecture we leave behind. Reflection Questions for Visionary Leaders. Leaders interested in developing this capacity might explore questions such as: - What internal narratives tend to drive my leadership behaviour under pressure? - When do I notice myself moving into urgency or over-functioning? - What would leadership look like if it were driven less by proving value and more by stewarding the future? - Where might slowing down actually improve the system I’m trying to lead? Michael Stephens (he/they) is a consultant designing human-centred systems rooted in transformation and long-term growth. He works at the level of culture and relationships, examining how leadership is experienced across identity, wellbeing and performance. As Founder of We Create Space , he partners with global organisations to design leadership ecosystems that strengthen capability, deepen belonging and support sustainable success. While you're here... We Create Space is a global learning platform and consultancy focused on workplace talent-development and community-building. Our human-centred approach creates space for people and organisations to thrive through leadership development, team learning experiences, data-backed belonging practices and bespoke content . Learn more We also organise FREE community events throughout the year! We offer a variety of ways to get involved - both online and in person. This is a great way to network and learn more about others' experiences, through in-depth discussion on an array of topics. You can find out what events we have coming up here . New ones are added all the time, so make sure you sign up to our newsletter so you can stay up to date!

Thokozani Mbwana shares how creating space for grief (and joy) can sustain us through tough times. Dear Reader,  This article invites you to explore what cradling grief and joy simultaneously looks like to you , through my own anecdotes. My hope with this offering for you is that hope is found, somewhere between these words. Thokozani xxx One summer’s day towards the end of 2024, I looked around my tiny, city apartment, suffocated by the pressure of grief that I hadn’t yet acknowledged. I sold everything I owned that day, took a flight back to my home city and crashed with my parents before my “next” adventure. A few months later, I was on a plane, arriving in Tokyo. I took a job, on a whim because that’s what I do when I’m sad. My life could start again, but different this time. I know Japan hates to see a plane with me coming, because 10 years ago I made the same pilgrimage to ease my sad little heart then. The thing with time is that 10 years is enough time to forget the lessons of grief. Especially, when your mission in the first place is to never experience that kind of grief again.  The unfortunate thing about all my dreams and delusions of leaving every painful memory of the last few years back home in South Africa was just that, dreams and delusions. My griefs packed their bags too and unbeknownst to me, took the same flight. The grief of ending my PhD pursuit after losing my supervisor and mentor to cancer, the grief of ending a long-term relationship that I thought would be forever, the grief of countless professional self-esteem hits I faced in difficult work environments, the grief of losing friends in the process of finding myself again. It felt like the last 5 years of my life was a long, drawn out battle, of which I lost at every phase of attack. Those battle wounds didn’t heal enroute, they only deepened in a different part of the world. I am a firm believer of the old adage “the only way out is through”. After running away from my griefs, and meeting them again on my first night in Tokyo, I can unequivocally say, with 100% certainty, that you need to face your grief before it faces you.  For the last year I have been formulating my own understanding regarding what griefwork means to me and more specifically what tangible actions I can take to walk through life with my grief, because I understand now that the grief really doesn't go away. We learn to live with it, live through it and around it. Some days we have ample space to accommodate it. Some days it annoys us and we snap at it. Some days we sit silently together and watch a movie. But it’s there. Sometimes big, sometimes small, but always there.  Before this journey, I definitely imagined grief to be an inconvenient guest in life’s big things. Loss of loved ones, loss of various forms of love, loss of financial security. Big things. My silly little life, with its silly little problems, didn't really read to me as requiring griefwork- despite the roots being glaringly obvious. Maybe I needed to be more consistent with my journaling, sure.  Maybe I needed to go back to therapy, definitely. But griefwork? I rationalised not seeking out or acknowledging the grief because life is joyous and vast and who wants to spend the short glimmers of hope we have in our day to day to make space for grief?  But that’s the thing about grief, it is ever present, whether we acknowledge it or not. It might be an unwelcome guest but it requires eventual participation from those it encounters. Simply by living, we consent to grief.  In working through my own grief I realised something: I was completely ill equipped. I was terrified to own my own grief because then I’d have to move through it and how do I do something I’ve spent most of my adult life running away from?  After what felt like endless back and forth with myself I decided the only way I could navigate this was to open myself up to my small daily griefs and to learn how to hold them, love them and nurture them until they are ready to roam around on their own. Essentially microdosing the small grief  to prepare me for  the big grief in general. For example, think of a time you were excited at the sun shining. It finally feels like the seasons are changing. You open the front door to feel the air and realise that thick coat season is officially over. You decided to walk to the corner store and get an ice cream, that vanilla flavored one that reminds you of your childhood. You haven’t had it in years but you recognise the wrapping. You buy it, walk out the store and rip open the packet as you find your bearings to the nearest park. Alas, the flavour isn’t quite what you imagined. They must have changed the recipe. so you chuck it in the bin and go home to continue your day. Did you grieve the joy and nostalgia you would have experienced had the ice cream been the flavour you imagined? Did you grieve the extra 15 minutes you would have spent outside, enjoying the sun had you been able to finish the ice cream? This to me, is the necessity of griefwork. Grieving the small, insignificant stuff too. This is not to say we need to critically assess every hope we have for every moment we’ll experience and the grief that might come from that. In the above scenario it’s very easy to imagine that the sunny day was still a good day albeit with the minor inconvenience of the not-quite-vanilla ice cream. But in the same way we champion exercising the joy muscles (more on this later), I believe that exercising the small-grief muscles equips us to face the big grief in general  when it comes knocking.  I think we have gotten really good as a collective at recognising that uncomfortable and challenging feelings need to be felt, especially in the context of anger/rage and sadness. But what about your daily grief? Do you make the same space for it as you do your frustrations? Your anxieties? Your sorrows?  My ask for the griefwork is to accept it in your daily practice of accepting things. We accept the weather for the day. We accept that we burnt the toast. We accept we’re running a little late for work. In all those moments, we might sigh or cuss, we might take a deep breath, we might recenter ourselves but we keep going anyway. Add grief to the rotation of things you accept in your daily life. Take a moment to express it, to feel it, to acknowledge it, to breathe through it and then keep going. I also believe that in order to effectively do the griefwork we must create space for joyseeking. Not in a way that is superficial or feels counterintuitive to the state of it all (world politics, the economy, the environment, our own personal life worries and stresses) but in a way that gives space to remember our humanity, both in the mundane and the beyond. I’d define my own journey with joyseeking as doing things that are good for me against my will and specifically when I want it the least. I don’t want to take a walk outside and enjoy a crisp breeze for the sake of my mental health when I’m stressed about work deadlines, and family matters that I can’t effectively engage in because I’m thousands of kilometres away from home. Yet here I am, taking that walk outside anyway and enjoying that crisp breeze instead of staring at the family group chat knowing that everyone is still asleep and can’t report back. The birds are chirping on my side of the world so, I’ll take the walk and see the moon still in the sky as the sun is rising. I’ll greet my elderly neighbours who have long since known the secret to maintaining some semblance of sense is a 5am walk every day for the rest of your life. I’ll look at the colour of the sky that’s different than it was yesterday and take a picture to send to my sister later. I’ll take pictures of the plum blossoms that are finally blooming to send to my friend who loves anything and everything ume  in the same way I do. I’ll see the murder of crows I’m convinced recognise and claim me, perched in their favourite tree and wave as they caw.  By the end of my morning walk, the knot in my chest has loosened slightly. I’m holding onto little treasures in the form of pictures to share throughout the day as my loved ones wake up in their various timezones. I eat my breakfast with fervor as I think of the old man who greets me with his cute elderly dog in its pink jacket and how I was able to maintain our conversation in Japanese for a little longer than last time. The knot might gradually loosen as I go on about my day, but it might tighten back up too. After all, the deadlines will be found when I get into the office and the group chat will relay the stressful news by the end of my day.  But honestly, I think all the joy I sought along my walk enables me to fortify myself, to prepare myself a little more, or a little better for when the hard stuff comes. So yes, if it means I need to give my day a rating out of 10 and it can’t be below 7 if at least 3 good things have happened then that’s what I’ll do to stop myself from the catastrophising spiral. If it means I am excited by a new seasonal flavour of my favourite treat getting released in my local corner store, so be it. If it’s the silly goose memes I spent 3 hours making to send to my sister whilst she slept, so be it.  So, my offering to you is this; if you feel the inclination to explore griefwork/joyseeking newly or differently (to what you’re doing or have done), I invite you to start with asking yourself these questions and feel your way around what kind of answers would best suit your life and capacity as it exists now. What if I microdosed my grief by letting the mundane “hurts” of the day linger just a little longer? What would that look like and feel like to me? What if I thought of the things I am grateful for at the end of the day and I just so happened to place the small griefs beside them? Would that lighten my worries? What if I allowed myself to be affected by it all, yet still committed to continue to seek joy because the time will pass, regardless? What would that look like in my day to day life? I say all of this to say, I think in the times we live in right now it’s okay to be scared. It’s okay to be frozen in fear. It’s okay to feel held stiff by what our collective and individual futures may be. But the future will come regardless. Griefwork and joyseeking to me, are necessary tools to prepare us for the other side of “the only way is through”. We need to remember that it is essential to our individual and collective futures that we are sufficiently replenished to the best of our abilities and capabilities. I believe accessing the grief and exercising the joy are necessary tools for us to use as we live through this chapter in our current history, and in our own personal lives. Thokozani Mbwana (he/they) is a nosey researcher by day and an Ancestor-summoning poet by night. His work explores existing and becoming and the murky confusion that lies between. As a facilitator, cultural worker and writer, Thokozani chooses to navigate his work from a place of healing. He is the author of The Sunflower Faces East At Dawn (2022), Agender Daydreams (2022) and A Modest Mahogany Table (2024). While you're here... We Create Space is a global learning platform and consultancy focused on workplace talent-development and community-building. Our human-centred approach creates space for people and organisations to thrive through leadership development, team learning experiences, data-backed belonging practices and bespoke content . Learn more We also organise FREE community events throughout the year! We offer a variety of ways to get involved - both online and in person. This is a great way to network and learn more about others' experiences, through in-depth discussion on an array of topics. You can find out what events we have coming up here . New ones are added all the time, so make sure you sign up to our newsletter so you can stay up to date!

Why awareness, relational intelligence, and human-centred leadership are becoming essential in a complex and rapidly changing world. Leadership is evolving. Across industries and sectors, organisations are facing a level of complexity and uncertainty that would have been difficult to imagine even a decade ago. Technological disruption, economic volatility, shifting expectations around work and wellbeing, and increasing pressure to build inclusive and sustainable cultures are reshaping what leadership actually requires. In response, many leaders are beginning to realise that traditional models of leadership are no longer sufficient on their own. For much of the past century, leadership was frequently defined through authority, expertise, and control. Leaders were expected to provide answers, establish direction, and ensure execution. Stability was the goal, and leadership success was often measured through efficiency, performance, and scale. But today’s leadership challenges rarely arrive in neat, solvable forms. They are often systemic, relational, and evolving. They involve competing priorities, incomplete information, and human dynamics that cannot simply be managed through authority. In this environment, a different kind of leadership is emerging - one that is less focused on commanding direction and more focused on shaping conditions. This is where the idea of Visionary Leadership  becomes particularly relevant. Visionary leadership is not about having all the answers. It is about creating the conditions where better answers can emerge. The Changing Context of Leadership. Leadership has always been shaped by its historical context. The leadership models that dominated the late twentieth century were largely designed for environments defined by stability, hierarchy, and predictable growth. Organisations were structured around clear reporting lines, and decision-making authority typically sat with a relatively small group of senior leaders. Today, however, organisations operate in a fundamentally different environment. One defining feature of the current moment is the growing prevalence of burnout and workplace fatigue. Global research from Gallup continues to show that employee engagement and wellbeing remain fragile across many industries, with managers often reporting some of the highest levels of stress and emotional exhaustion. Leadership roles increasingly involve navigating human challenges such as mental health, conflict, and uncertainty alongside operational responsibilities. At the same time, technological disruption is accelerating at an unprecedented pace. The rapid development of artificial intelligence and automation is transforming how decisions are made, how work is organised, and what kinds of skills organisations value. The World Economic Forum identifies leadership, resilience, emotional intelligence, and social influence among the most important capabilities for organisations navigating the future of work. Another defining characteristic of the 2020s is growing social and cultural polarisation. Many workplaces have become microcosms of wider societal tensions around identity, politics, and values. Leaders are increasingly asked to facilitate conversations and decisions that involve deeply held perspectives and emotional complexity. Finally, trust in institutions and leadership itself has declined across many societies. The Edelman Trust Barometer consistently highlights widening gaps between organisational messaging and employee experience. People are paying closer attention not only to what organisations say, but to how leaders behave and how decisions are actually made. Taken together, these dynamics create a leadership environment that is significantly more complex than in previous decades. Technical expertise and authority alone are no longer sufficient. Leaders increasingly need the ability to understand systems, navigate ambiguity, and build cultures of trust and collaboration. These capabilities sit at the heart of Visionary Leadership. Research from organisations such as the World Economic Forum, Gallup, and McKinsey consistently highlights that the leadership capabilities most needed today are increasingly human rather than purely technical. WCS Resource: Top 10 Training Programmes for Community Building & Leadership. Seeing Beneath the Surface. Visionary leadership begins with slowing down and building awareness. Yet many organisations remain structured around responding to immediate events. A conflict emerges, performance drops, or a project fails, and leaders are expected to intervene quickly with solutions. Visionary leaders approach these moments differently. Rather than asking only “What happened?” , they also ask “What conditions made this likely?” This shift reflects insights from systems thinking and organisational psychology , which emphasise that behaviour rarely emerges in isolation. It is shaped by cultural norms, incentives, relationships, and structures that interact over time. Visionary leaders therefore pay attention to patterns. They notice recurring tensions within teams, subtle shifts in communication, and the structural factors that influence behaviour. They recognise that many organisational challenges are symptoms of deeper systemic dynamics rather than isolated incidents. This type of awareness also requires self-awareness. Leaders are not neutral observers of the systems they inhabit. Their assumptions, communication styles, and reactions influence the environments around them. Visionary leadership therefore begins with the willingness to pause, reflect, and examine both personal patterns and organisational dynamics. Leadership is not simply about influencing others. It is about understanding the systems we are already shaping through our behaviour. Holding Complexity Without Rushing to Simplify. Another defining feature of visionary leadership is the ability to remain curious in the presence of complexity. Contemporary leadership culture often emphasises clarity and decisiveness. While these qualities are valuable, they can sometimes encourage leaders to simplify complex challenges too quickly. Many of the issues organisations face today - cultural transformation, innovation, inclusion, technological change - cannot be reduced to simple answers. Visionary leaders recognise this reality. They develop the capacity to hold multiple perspectives simultaneously, acknowledging nuance and uncertainty without immediately collapsing complexity into binary solutions. This does not mean avoiding decisions. Rather, it means taking the time to understand the deeper dynamics at play before acting. Leaders who demonstrate this kind of intellectual humility often create greater trust within teams. When people feel that complexity is acknowledged rather than dismissed, they are more likely to contribute ideas, challenge assumptions, and participate meaningfully in problem-solving. Creating Conditions for Others to Contribute. Traditional leadership models often focus on directing activity and ensuring compliance. Visionary leadership reframes this responsibility. Rather than concentrating solely on controlling outcomes, visionary leaders focus on shaping the conditions that allow individuals and teams to do their best work. These conditions include psychological safety, clarity of purpose, trust, and access to information . Research from organisations such as McKinsey and Google’s Project Aristotle consistently demonstrates that psychological safety is one of the strongest predictors of team performance and innovation. When these elements are present, collaboration becomes easier, creativity increases, and teams are more likely to take initiative. Visionary leaders therefore invest significant attention in the relational environment of their organisations. They pay close attention to how meetings are structured, how decisions are communicated, and how power is distributed. Rather than positioning themselves as the sole source of direction, they create environments where leadership can emerge throughout the system. Imagining More Humane Futures. The word “visionary” often implies prediction. In reality, visionary leadership is less about predicting the future and more about imagination. Visionary leaders recognise that organisational systems are human-made and therefore capable of change. They question assumptions that may no longer serve organisations or communities and explore alternative possibilities. Innovation, in this sense, is not purely technological. It is cultural. When leaders create environments where diverse perspectives are welcomed, the horizon of what becomes imaginable expands. Curiosity and experimentation become central leadership behaviours. This imaginative capacity allows organisations not only to adapt to change, but to shape it. Visionary leadership does not simply respond to change. It creates the conditions where better futures become possible. The Five Keys of Visionary Leadership. At We Create Space , we explore visionary leadership at every level through five interconnected capabilities: Wellbeing : Sustainable leadership begins with self-awareness, balance, and emotional regulation Communication : The ability to listen deeply and communicate with authenticity and clarity Teamwork : Cultivating collaboration and psychological safety within teams Innovation : Approaching uncertainty with curiosity, creativity, and experimentation Community : Building relationships and empowering others to contribute meaningfully These five keys reflect the understanding that leadership is not simply an individual capability but a relational and systemic practice. Creating Space for Leadership to Emerge. In our work with organisations around the world, we often explore how leadership behaviour, organisational culture, and organisational systems interact. The Creating Space Methodology™  helps leaders navigate this complexity by examining how culture operates across four interconnected dimensions: personal space, relational space, collective space, and systemic space. At the centre of this methodology is a simple leadership practice: Pause → Listen → Connect → Act → Reflect This cycle encourages leaders to slow down reactive decision-making, seek different perspectives, build shared understanding, and translate insight into thoughtful action. Over time, these small behavioural shifts influence how teams communicate, collaborate, and solve problems. The Future of Leadership Is Human-Centred. The leadership challenges of the twenty-first century are unlikely to become simpler. Organisations will continue to navigate technological transformation, shifting workforce expectations, and complex global challenges. In this environment, leadership will increasingly depend not only on strategy and expertise, but also on the quality of human relationships within organisations. This is why human-centred leadership is becoming such an important focus. At We Create Space , our work sits at the intersection of leadership development, organisational culture, and inclusive practice. Through research, programmes, and community initiatives, we explore how leaders can cultivate awareness, compassion, connection, and agency within complex systems. Visionary leadership ultimately asks leaders to recognise that they do more than direct activity. They shape environments. They influence how people communicate, how decisions are made, and how organisations imagine their future. And when leaders approach that responsibility with awareness, curiosity, and care, they create something far more powerful than authority. They create space. Visionary leadership is not a personality trait. It is a practice - one that organisations can intentionally cultivate. If the leadership challenges in your organisation are revealing deeper questions about culture, trust, or collaboration, perhaps it’s time to redesign how leadership actually works - not just what it says. At We Create Space, we partner with organisations around the world to cultivate human-centred cultures through research, leadership development, and the Creating Space Methodology™. If you're exploring how to build more visionary leadership in your organisation, let’s explore that architecture together. Michael Stephens (he/they) is a Leadership Architect designing human-centred systems rooted in transformation and long-term growth. He works at the level of culture and relationships, examining how leadership is experienced across identity, wellbeing and performance. As Founder of We Create Space , he partners with global organisations to design leadership ecosystems that strengthen capability, deepen belonging and support sustainable success. While you're here... We Create Space is a global learning platform and consultancy focused on workplace talent-development and community-building. Our human-centred approach creates space for people and organisations to thrive through leadership development, team learning experiences, data-backed belonging practices and bespoke content . Learn more We also organise FREE community events throughout the year! We offer a variety of ways to get involved - both online and in person. This is a great way to network and learn more about others' experiences, through in-depth discussion on an array of topics. You can find out what events we have coming up here . New ones are added all the time, so make sure you sign up to our newsletter so you can stay up to date!

Our guest writer Thokozani Mbwana reflects on the internal and external challenges faced on their journey through gender affirming surgery - exploring dysphoria and intersectional stigma at the heart of the health care system. "Oh! To be black, fat-bodied and agender: Tales from top surgery." by Thokozani Mbwana I can’t remember exactly when dysphoria entered my life. Initially, it would come and go as a hazy fog, sometimes lifting briefly to allow me to see the horizon beyond, sometimes so thick that it would travel to the back of my throat and press down on my lungs- suffocating and oppressive. Over the years, the fog settled into my chest more and more, nestling between my organs and refusing to leave. Every day I would wake with a burning sensation in my breasts, and as time went on, the constant feeling that I was finding it harder and harder to breathe. It’s taken me about ten years to reach my current place of being - the fact that I am agender. It has mostly been a journey of ‘what ifs’ and ‘what could bes’, ten years of self interrogation - ten years of hoping for a more bearable life path to reveal itself. But as the burning in my chest only grew stronger and my breathing grew fainter, one day I realised that if I did not choose to live in my truest form, I would spend a lifetime in a constant state of despair. ''I had to come to terms with the fact that with the limited language and expression we have around gender, that though I envied men who had flat chests for their ease of their gender, more specifically what I desired was the aesthetic of a flat chest in relation to my own identity.'' Agender to me is to transcend the binary, existing completely outside of the rules and regulations of gender and its conditioning. I’ve had to learn to do away with my own ideas of and subscriptions to gender. I no longer think of myself in binaries of masculine or feminine because my identity, by definition cannot be ascribed such things. But that has not meant that my processing hasn’t been binary or that the way I’m perceived isn’t either. I have long since understood that as a fat-bodied, hip-heavy “baby-faced” person that regardless of my expression or aesthetics that I will, nine times out of ten- without effort, be read as some variation of “femme” and/ or “woman”. For a long time, I really struggled with this social reality, especially when in my personal reality I do not perceive myself in that way. As time went on and I explored the intersections between my bisexuality and my ever evolving (un)gender identity, I realised that a lot of my desire for men was rooted in gender envy and not sexual attraction. I had to come to terms with the fact that with the limited language and expression we have around gender, that though I envied men who had flat chests for their ease of their gender, more specifically what I desired was the aesthetic of a flat chest in relation to my own identity. Though my gender envy manifested as “I want to be him” it was not man-ness or masculinity that I was aligned with, but rather how I perceived myself to be in my mind's eye which was that “Breasts do not serve my perceptions of myself in relation to my gender identity.” ''As black, fat-bodied and agender in the medical system trying to access gender affirming surgery - it was crucial that I interrogated my own internalised fatphobia before what I knew would be a war against my body.'' But we all know, in uncovering one thing, there is a well of other interlinking factors that reveal themselves. On my journey to understanding myself and my desires for my own body, I realised that in all my imaginings of my breast-less self, I was incredibly thin. I could not imagine myself outside of thinness because my internalised fatphobia dictated that because I was fat and “curvy” I could not or would not- regardless of whether I had breasts, be perceived outside of “femme”. I noticed the pressure for the archetypical “androgynous nonbinary” building up inside me- leading to more rounds of self-reflection and interrogation about the incessant conditioning of gender binarism. This was an incredibly difficult and necessary journey to embark on that came at the right time when, in early 2021 I started seriously considering top surgery. As black, fat-bodied and agender in the medical system trying to access gender affirming surgery- it was crucial that I interrogated my own internalised fatphobia before what I knew would be a war against my body. ''I could’ve really gone into the anti-black and violent origins of the BMI system, but I knew that arguing with a certified doctor about how exclusionary and violent that thinking and practice was, would do no good for my mental health.'' I explored both the private and public health options for top surgery to get a better understanding of what would be available and doable for me. I still remember the hours I waited to meet the doctor at the public hospital, who sat across from me for less than five minutes before very matter of factly stating that I could not, at all, access top surgery in the public healthcare system in my city. Because one of the requirements for surgery was for me to have a BMI (body mass index) of 25, she explained that she could already see that I was ineligible. I could’ve really gone into the anti-black and violent origins of the BMI system, but I knew that arguing with a certified doctor about how exclusionary and violent that thinking and practice was, would do no good for my mental health and so I shrugged it off and tried to move on. Some time later, I sat nervously in the private doctor’s office. This man would turn out to be my surgeon a few months later. I came into his office with a booklet of questions - the first asking about weight and surgery. His response was the same- you have a better chance of survival and better healing results with a BMI of 25, “But, I’ve operated on patients bigger than you and they were just fine. I understand the urgency of gender affirming surgery and your weight won’t be a barrier to you accessing this surgery .” Of course my weight wouldn’t be a barrier if I was paying out of pocket. I tried to be reassured by what he said and as I was packing my things, I resolved to take what he said positively. As I turned to leave his office right after that thought- he suggested I lose weight anyway. ''I was yet again reminded of the uncomfortable complexities of being fat, black and trans in the healthcare system. My pain - a nonfactor. My concerns - dismissed.'' I spent the next few months before my surgery doing research, with results of fat, black folks experiences being few and far between. Regardless, I felt I had done all I could to prepare myself emotionally, physically and mentally for the journey ahead. But, things never really work out the way we plan or hope for. After surgery, my drains stayed in for three weeks, which is at least two weeks longer than usual. I had accepted long before this that I would leave surgery with “dog ears'' (fat pockets left on the sides of your chest to ensure the skin doesn't tighten too much during healing- typically only done on fat patients) but what I could not stand was the pinching pain and swelling I was experiencing at the site of my drain ports. I became increasingly distressed at every weekly post surgery check-up when trying to explain to the doctor how these drains were not at all suited for my fat body, and how excruciating the pain from the swelling of my fat rolls were, because they sat right above the ports. Crying in his office in pain as he refused to prescribe me any painkillers because “the pain really isn't that bad '' I was yet again reminded of the uncomfortable complexities of being fat, black and trans in the healthcare system. My pain - a nonfactor. My concerns - dismissed. Later on in one of my check-ups I would in fact find out that one of my nipples became necrotic and died because of the lack of blood flow. ''Do I think if I was thin and white this journey would have been different? Yes, absolutely.'' I try not to be bitter about some parts of my top surgery journey. I can say unequivocally that it wasn’t an easy journey, holding a beautiful body I loved and hoped the best for, and presenting it to people who brazenly suggested that it was not worthy of the future it deserved. Though the bitterness lingers and sometimes I try to fight it- I do believe that experiencing such difficult feelings has helped me process a lot of what I had thought was unprocessable. An incredible support system who reminded me every step of the way how precious my body and I are were important. My therapist talking me down from disordered eating episodes was important. Discarding binary ideas of fat distribution and body types was important. Talking to my body every day and praising it for surviving such a tough transition was so incredibly important. Do I think if I was thin and white this journey would have been different? Yes, absolutely. But at what cost does desiring being thin and white take away from the phenomenally empowering experience of choosing my agender final form in all my fat, black glory? In the end, I am exactly as I am meant to be. About Thokozani Mbwana (they/he): Thokozani is a nosey researcher by day and an Ancestor-summoning poet/writer by night. Their work explores existing and becoming and the murky confusion in between. Find their debut poetry chapbook The Sunflower Faces East At Dawn here and personal essays chapbook Agender Daydreams here Connect with Thokozani: Twitter: @writtenbyflora Instagram: @ur_fave_uncle

Neil Hudson-Basing shares lessons and insights from his events career which feature in his new WCS | Masterclass. Working in event management wasn’t planned. As a kid, through my teens, university and beyond, I flitted between what I wanted to do with my life and who I wanted to be. I didn’t have any role models or big aspirations. I accidentally fell into the world of events and the fast paced nature of it appealed to me. Suddenly, without even realising for quite a while, it became my career. The roles I’ve had have been incredibly varied - from fundraising officer to project manager, to my role today at We Create Space as Community & Events Director (with many more in between). My career has spanned a broad range of sectors too - charity voluntary, political, education and media. What started off as roles primarily centred around operations and logistics has shifted to one focusing on content creation, communication and community building. In recent years, I’ve also flexed into hosting and facilitation. Having been in the Events Industry over the last 20 years, I’ve been responsible for creating meaningful experiences for attendees, speakers and stakeholders - and so much of the impact I’ve seen comes back to whether or not those individuals feel a part of it. I didn’t quite grasp that in my early career in the same way I do now through the lens of Inclusive Event Design. Inclusive Event Design is like a second language to me now. It’s embedded and flows through my approach, behaviours and actions. A fair bit of it feels intrinsic, stemming from my insistence, since childhood, on fairness, kindness and respect. Yet much of it is learned and has been shaped by interactions, experiences and lessons throughout my career (some of which I’ve learned the hard way). I have been able to transfer the skills I’ve developed and learned throughout my career into so many other facets of my life. It probably goes without saying that organisational skills have supported me in project management and delivery in both my professional and personal outputs. However, there are two areas in which I’ve found the most value as a result of being an events professional: communication & relationship building . These have become fundamental in how I show up in the world in how I collaborate, support and advocate for others. We’ve just launched our brand new WCS Masterclass in Inclusive Event Design - designed and delivered by yours truly - to help you embed inclusion & belonging into every stage of the event planning journey. Now that it's live I’ve been reflecting a lot on how I got to where I am today. With those reflections in mind, here are 5 career defining moments that have stayed with me, taught me a ton and influenced the decisions I make when creating events. The Power of Storytelling In my early career as Campaigns & Public Affairs Assistant at the UK’s leading cancer charity, I supported the production of a Financial Toolkit for People Affected by Cancer. This culminated in a roundtable discussion consisting of medical professionals, policy makers and most importantly, service users. Whether talking about car parking fees, benefits or caring allowances, hearing service users talk about their lived experience of navigating life with cancer brought the toolkit to life . What’s more, it raised awareness, educated key decision makers and changed processes. It was an impactful example of using an event to launch a product and create change through real life storytelling. The Spirit of Collaboration & Co-Production My first big break into the world of events was landing the role of ‘Project Coordinator’ for a membership organisation made up of trade associations, regulatory bodies and charities. Our main purpose was to support the curation and delivery of a programme of events during the three main political party conferences through fringe events, flagship activities and an exhibition. One of my tasks was to find commonalities amongst the 50 members, group them together - across three organisations - and have them collaborate on a joint event. This event would ultimately aim to shape overarching policy in key areas relevant to their individual organisation and communicate their work. Seeing incredibly different organisations with specific remits come together, and working with them, in such an creative, innovative and unified way instilled in me the importance of collaboration and co-production. Later down the line, this massively shaped the way I worked with ERGs in terms of cross-collaborative ventures and today as I speak about impact within Inclusive Event Design. Logistics That Work For Everyone As a Corporate Events Manager working in an academic institution, I would work across and support different departments. One event that came my way was a celebration of 100 years of our learning disability nursing department which would be attended by academics, nursing professionals and people with learning disabilities. Until that point in my role, everything required of me had been incredibly corporate E.G. audiences, catering, technical requirements. Yet delivering an event for people with learning disabilities required extra levels of thought and attention to ensure the experience for them was equitable and comfortable. I worked closely with the Learning Disability Nursing team on all things logistics from shaping the programme to lighting and they taught me new skills - producing easy read signage. This instance highlighted how logistics can be handled more considerately and creatively when considering the attendee experience for everyone. Representation Matters I’m transparent about where I’ve made mistakes in my career and truly believe mistakes set us up for success - and hopefully avoid making them again! When I began working on virtual events, I spearheaded an online, three-part Sustainability & Climate Action Series, which took part across a whopping 11 days with speakers from around the world. No easy feat! I snapped into action to source speakers. It wasn't until part two of the series that I stopped, looked at the makeup of the speakers and realised there was limited representation when it came to Black individuals & POC. With climate change impacting global majority communities more than anyone else, I realised this was something I needed to fix - not out of ticking the boxes but because representation matters and the integrity of the event demanded it. It was a lesson learned the hard way and it’s something that is now at the forefront of my mind when crafting events. Sometimes it means digging that bit deeper to source a speaker that is right for the role but one that also brings a diverse, intersectional perspective. Bringing your Audience on a Journey How you engage with your audience is a core part of our Masterclass in Inclusive Event Design and provides an opportunity for you to be creative, challenge yourself AND your audience. Working within a university, things were pretty traditional and I revelled in disrupting that fairly often. Repositioning my role from one centred around logistics to one driving content and messaging, I organised an International Women’s Day evening entitled ‘Casual Misogyny & Sexism - Banter or Oppression?’ BOOM. A title to grab people’s attention. We even had postcards distributed around campus featuring somewhat tongue-in-cheek but thought-provoking phrases women often hear from men to promote the event. The next step was creating a format for the evening. I bypassed the usual options and instead booked a well-known comedian to kickstart the evening. This was followed by a student who spoke frankly and freely about the casual sexism they’d encountered on campus and the impact of this on their studies. A panel discussion made up of professionals, students and our comedian provided the audience with a range of viewpoints and take-aways, including what male allyship looks like in these scenarios. I even hosted the evening - overcoming my fear of public speaking - to put this into action. The event was a sellout. We had a packed out audience and it was talked about for weeks afterwards. It shaped future events and attracted new attendees from within the university and local community too. It demonstrated the need to mix things up a bit in order to effectively communicate a message and inspire new ways of thinking. To sum up this article, I did an online search for a definition of ‘Inclusive Event Design’ and here’s what came up: the proactive, comprehensive process of planning events that ensure all participants—attendees, speakers, and staff—feel welcome, safe, and respected, regardless of their background, ability, or identity. It’s a decent definition and hits the nail on the head but ultimately, as event planners - whether in your professional role, in your free time, as a community organiser, etc… the definition you create exists in you and how you do things. It isn’t just a nice thing to do. It’s fundamental to meeting organisational goals, encouraging strong stakeholder engagement, building communities and creating positive change. So it makes sense for event planners and their organisations to dedicate the time to adopt an inclusive events approach that is accessible, actionable and sustainable as well as being effective. There’s no right or wrong way to do it either. Actually, I’ll rephrase that, there is no one-way to do it . There are in fact many wrong ways to do it and I’ve done them… and got the t-shirt. I hope that this Masterclass supports you in navigating (even avoiding) some of the pitfalls and mistakes I’ve encountered as well as supports you in your learning and development when it comes to your own organisation, communication and relationship building skills & techniques. As I state in the Masterclass, creating inclusive events is not a linear process and you won’t always get it right. It’s a holistic process that will shape you, your choices and your career. The blips will shape you and your future events. You’ll learn and grow and your events will flourish as a result. Neil Hudson-Basing (he/him) is We Create Space 's Community & Events Director based in London. With almost 20 years experience in the events industry, Neil has a real passion for bringing audiences together. He's the Co-Founder of The House of Happiness, a queer led & delivered sober clubbing event, to help address the lack of LGBTQ+ sober spaces. He's also the producer & host of his podcast 'Pause. And Rewind...' which focuses on inclusion heroes & their origin stories. He's a passionate advocate for volunteering too - he's the Events Director for Trans+ History Week & regularly supports multiple charities, non-profits & initiatives. While you're here... We Create Space is a global learning platform and consultancy focused on workplace talent-development and community-building. Our human-centred approach creates space for people and organisations to thrive through leadership development, team learning experiences, data-backed belonging practices and bespoke content . Learn more We also organise FREE community events throughout the year! We offer a variety of ways to get involved - both online and in person. This is a great way to network and learn more about others' experiences, through in-depth discussion on an array of topics. You can find out what events we have coming up here . New ones are added all the time, so make sure you sign up to our newsletter so you can stay up to date!

Michael Stephens explores how burnout can reveal the hidden architecture of leadership - and why sustainable, human-centred performance begins in the body. I'm currently in recovery from another period of burnout. Not the dramatic, collapse-on-the-floor version I have experienced in the past, thankfully, but a quieter, more insidious form. I am still functioning. Still creating. And despite taking some time off to recover, my sleep remains fragmented, my digestion impacted, and my body feels ever-so-subtly braced, as though preparing for something that never quite arrives. If you are a leader, founder, or someone navigating change, burnout or identity shifts - this may sound or feel familiar. I have been here before. And yet this time something feels different. Some of the symptoms are familiar, but my understanding and relationship to them has shifted somewhat. In the past, I’ve primarily treated burnout as episodic: too much work, too much ambition, too much responsibility. A difficult season to optimise around or push through. This time I have been sitting with some different questions: What is the pattern here? What am I letting go of? What am I Creating Space  for? Before going further, I want to be clear: I’m not writing this as a clinician. I’m writing as a founder, a leader, and someone who has spent years in therapy and research trying to understand his own patterns. If something resonates, explore it with professionals who can support you. This is an invitation to inquire, not diagnose. The Breath in Subtle Extension Across decades, different symptoms have appeared on different surfaces in my life - from adolescent disordered eating, to substance misuse in early adulthood and burnout in leadership. Digestive sensitivity, early waking and neck tension - for a long time, I treated each chronic symptom in isolation, spending so much time (and money) seeking solutions to them individually. But now, I'm seeing them as expressions of one adaptive architecture. One of the most unexpected clues has been something people have complimented me on my entire life: my posture. I have often been told I stand poised "like a dancer.” Shoulders back. Chest open. Disciplined. Confident. I wore that as a badge of pride. Only recently have I begun to consider that what appears elegant may also reflect subtle over-extension - a nervous system living in quiet readiness. It looks powerful. It feels productive. Mechanically however, it can be exhausting. And over time, takes a quiet toll. A Body That Learned to Brace Research in psychology consistently shows that meaning and purpose are associated with resilience and long-term wellbeing. Yet people who report a strong sense of purpose can also often experience greater day-to-day stress . After all, we do not stress over what we do not care about. We stress over what matters. Stress follows significance.   For many visionary leaders, founders, creatives and facilitators, significance is not optional. We shape space. We hold responsibility. We care deeply. The World Health Organization defines burnout as “a syndrome resulting from chronic stress that has not been successfully managed”. What that definition underplays is the physiological dimension. Chronic stress fundamentally reshapes bodily rhythms and signalling systems. It influences sleep architecture, cortisol patterns , immune signalling and digestive function. It is not simply emotional depletion; it is accumulated load. Breathing patterns I’ve learned are part of this picture. Under prolonged stress, breathing can shift toward upper chest dominance , where accessory neck muscles take over and exhalation becomes incomplete. Reduced exhale depth is associated with sustained sympathetic activation - the body’s “prepared mode.” When we do not fully exhale, we do not fully downshift. Over time, that subtle elevation can influence sleep transitions, contributing to the 2–4am alertness many of us high-functioning leaders quietly experience. The vagus nerve - a central component of the parasympathetic nervous system - connects the brainstem to heart, lungs and gut. It plays a role in digestion, inflammatory regulation and stress recovery. It turns out approximately seventy percent of immune tissue resides in the gut . Chronic sympathetic dominance has been linked to altered microbiome diversity and inflammatory signalling. This does not mean stress causes illness in isolation. But it does influence the terrain. In that light, digestive sensitivity during periods of stress and burnout appears less random and more systemic. For many of us, the story does not begin in adulthood. Early-life stress can recalibrate the autonomic baseline . Children who experience pressure, emotional unpredictability or the need to over-adapt in order to belong may adopt a higher sympathetic tone as a strategy . Regulation may later occur through achievement, discipline, athleticism, food, substances or overwork (or all the above in my case). The behaviour varies, but the underlying template may be similar. These are not moral failures, they are regulatory strategies that once made sense. Leadership Without Exhale From a leadership perspective, this matters. Many high-functioning leaders operate from what I now recognise as “elevated-neutral” rather than “relaxed-neutral”. Chest open. Forward-facing. Responsible. Holding everything. It is socially rewarded and often effective. It certainly gave me access to influence and responsibility earlier than I might otherwise have had. Yet without parasympathetic counterbalance, it became vigilance with responsibility. I now recognise that sustainable leadership requires nervous system literacy - not to dampen ambition, but to support it with regulation. When I look back honestly, burnout has been a catalyst for transformation in my life. It led me to seek help for addiction. It led me to change careers. It led me to build We Create Space . Each interruption forced deeper inquiry - not into productivity, but into presence; not into achievement, but into adaptation. Each breakdown led to a significant shift - a shift away from something that was no longer serving me, and toward something arguably better. Burnout, in this framing, is not merely collapse. It’s interruption. It is the moment the architecture reveals itself. Creating Space in the Body and in Leadership Creating Space has never only been the name of my work. It is the embodied practice of transformation I have been using for many years in my personal and professional life. At its core, the Creating Space Methodology follows a simple but powerful rhythm: Self-Awareness → Compassion → Connection → Agency. The Creating Space Wheel ™ Burnout, for me, has been the interruption that forced me back into that rhythm. So how might you begin to locate this within yourself - not as diagnosis, but as inquiry? What You Can Do: Self-Awareness. The first step is noticing. Where does your breath live when you are stressed, presenting, leading or problem-solving? Is it low and expansive, or high and lifted? Can you feel the end of your exhale - or does it disappear before it fully lands? What happens to your posture under pressure? Does your chest subtly rise? Do your shoulders brace? Do you operate from extension without realising it? Even tracking your sleep patterns - waking at the same time each night - can reveal how fully (or not) you are downshifting during the day. Self-awareness is not self-criticism. It is observation without agenda. Compassion. Once you see the pattern, resist the urge to judge it. The bracing, the over-achieving, the vigilance - these were not flaws. They were strategies. They once made sense. Compassion reframes the architecture not as dysfunction, but as adaptation. Your nervous system was not betraying you. It was protecting you. Connection. From there, you can begin to ask the deeper question: where else does this pattern live? In your relationships? In your leadership style? In your need to perform, control or stay ahead? Connection is about seeing how the physical, emotional and behavioural threads interweave. Burnout stops being an isolated event and becomes part of a broader system asking to be understood. Agency. Only then does practice become meaningful. Agency is not about forcing change; it is about choosing interruption. Lengthen the exhale by two or three seconds. Soften the lower ribs. Allow the abdomen to expand without sucking it in. Pause before responding. Reduce one unnecessary stimulus. These are small acts. They are architectural acts. They signal safety to the system. Creating Space is not about becoming a “better” leader. It is about becoming a more present one. From Individual Work to Cultural Design I do not romanticise burnout. It disrupts identity, relationships and work. But I am beginning to feel grateful to my body for revealing what was hidden in plain sight. Grateful for the interruptions. Grateful for the invitation to move from urgency to intention, from control to connection, from over-adaptation to conscious choice. My relationship with burnout remains complicated. But in learning to exhale more fully - physiologically and psychologically - I am learning to lead differently. And that, perhaps, is the real transformation happening here. What began as personal recovery has become professional clarity. If burnout reveals architecture at the level of the individual, it also reveals architecture at the level of the organisation. Culture is not just strategy and structure; it is nervous systems interacting at scale.   Sustainable performance requires sustainable regulation.  That is leadership design work. When leadership operates in chronic urgency, organisations begin to reflect that physiology. Decisions become reactive rather than strategic. Communication shortens. Control quietly replaces trust. Creativity narrows under pressure. High performers remain functional, but innovation thins and retention suffers. Burnout rarely announces itself loudly inside businesses; it often shows up as subtle friction, cultural fatigue, avoidable turnover, and leaders who are technically effective yet quietly depleted. The cost is not only wellbeing - it is clarity, cohesion and long-term performance. This is why our work increasingly focuses on simplicity, sustainability and scalability through the lens of the Creating Space Methodology . Simplicity reduces unnecessary cognitive and emotional load. Sustainability protects nervous system capacity over time. Scalability requires systems that do not rely on chronic urgency to function. If a leadership culture depends on constant bracing, it cannot scale without exhaustion. Regulation, therefore, is not a personal wellness concept; it is a strategic design principle. If leaders operate from bracing, organisations mirror it. If urgency drives nervous systems, culture absorbs that urgency. If leaders learn to regulate, teams feel safer. Human-centred leadership is not soft - it’s systemic. If burnout is revealing something about how leadership is experienced in your organisation , let’s explore how to redesign that architecture - together. Michael Stephens (he/they) is a Leadership Architect designing human-centred systems rooted in transformation and long-term growth. He works at the level of culture and relationships, examining how leadership is experienced across identity, wellbeing and performance. As Founder of We Create Space , he partners with global organisations to design leadership ecosystems that strengthen capability, deepen belonging and support sustainable success. While you're here... We Create Space is a global learning platform and consultancy focused on workplace talent-development and community-building. Our human-centred approach creates space for people and organisations to thrive through leadership development, team learning experiences, data-backed belonging practices and bespoke content . Learn more We also organise FREE community events throughout the year! We offer a variety of ways to get involved - both online and in person. This is a great way to network and learn more about others' experiences, through in-depth discussion on an array of topics. You can find out what events we have coming up here . New ones are added all the time, so make sure you sign up to our newsletter so you can stay up to date!

Connecting communities through allyship. At We Create Space, we see the transformative power of community every single day. For organisations striving to build a more inclusive, engaged, and thriving workplace, we believe community-building isn’t just a solution. It’s the foundation. As part of our ongoing support for & partnership with Trans+ History Week, this instalment of Community Building 101 explores what to expect from Year 3 of this growing & impactful calendar moment. With a focus on the THW Workbook, produced with Queer AF, for 2026 and powered by DIVA Charitable Trust, as well as how to bring this to life within your organisation! Jon-Paul Vicari (he/him), Managing Director for WCS, is joined by Marty Davies (she/they), Founder of Trans+ History Week to discuss the ever-increasing need for the popularisation of Trans+ history, the challenges & joy of leading this community movement and a direct call for action for individuals & businesses to make 2026 the year they get on board. PLUS, Neil Hudson-Basing (he/him), our Community & Events Director for WCS, shares a few ideas for how to put the lessons from the THW Workbook into action through content & events as launch our brand new We Create Space Masterclass in Inclusive Event Design. In previous Community Building 101 sessions we have spoken with the teams behind Trans+ History Week , Voda: The LGBTQIA+ Mental Wellbeing App , UK Black Pride , Oogachaga and Panteres Grogues . The objective of Community Building 101 is to provide actionable strategies & tools to promote effective change, collective learning, workplace culture & shared values. It also serves as a talking point for how grassroots principles can be applied in corporate settings and vice versa. We asked our speakers to share their main takeaways from the event: Marty Davies Centre Trans+ people and their input in anything you create for Trans+ History Week. Download the Trans+ History Week Workbook 2026 to get more tips and inspiration for your plans. Jon-Paul Vicari Pay trans+ people for their work and time and give credit where it’s due. Consider how you build trans+ inclusion into everyday behaviours. I once had a leader that at end of the every weekly team meeting did a 5-10 min Inclusion Moment (e.g. short videos, celebration/awareness moments, articles, lessons from the workbook) Neil Hudson-Basing Consider you can use your professional power & privilege to raise awareness & drive change and then commit to action. Know that tapping into your skills & expertise can make a difference somewhere! If you would like to discuss booking one of these speakers for your own session, please get in touch with us via email at hello@wecreatespace.co While you're here... Did you know we consult with Businesses, ERGs and Change-Leaders providing bespoke corporate solutions? Through consultancy we design shared learning experiences, produce DEI insights and craft bespoke content that support individuals with strengthening their roles as change-agents within their communities and organisations. Find out more here . We also organise FREE community events throughout the year! We offer a variety of ways to get involved - both online and in person. This is a great way to network and learn more about others' experiences, through in-depth discussion on an array of topics. You can find out what events we have coming up here . New ones are added all the time, so make sure you sign up to our newsletter  so you can stay up to date!

Intersectional perspectives on the issues facing LGBTQ+ people in the workplace with our 'Pride & Beyond' podcast. The Pride & Beyond Podcast shares valuable insights on a variety of intersectional topics that focus on the Queer Community and the experiences of Queer Leaders in the workplace. Across 13 episodes you'll be provided you with the space to learn, reflect, and consider how you can be a more impactful leader and ally within the communities that you are serving, during Pride, and beyond. Each episode features different members of the WCS Collective, each offering rich intersectional lived experience and professional expertise. 01. Navigating Male Privilege Alex Leon , Ryan Zaman , Calvin Stovell & Tate Smith discuss: When and how is male privilege granted, rewarded, or weaponised? What are some intersectional nuances within the LGBTQIA+ male experience? How can male privilege be leveraged for positive change?  LISTEN NOW  02. Queer Migrant & Refugee Status Carlos Idibouo , Nour Mfjarrouj & Aditya Sinha discuss: Who are migrants and refugees? How do LGBTQ+ identities inform this experience? What are the common misconceptions surrounding migrant and refugee status? How do we tackle the root cause of stigma and specific barriers to societal inclusion? Addressing the opportunity gap, inclusive recruitment and investing in refugee employment. How moving migrant and refugee stories forward (beyond creating awareness) can help organisations reach diverse talent?  LISTEN NOW  03. Being a Queer Leader of Faith Kanndiss Riley , Andrew Seedall , Alex D’Sa & Kodo Nishimura discuss: How do faith and Queerness interact? Where can we find spaces as LGBTQ+ People within faith communities? Advice for anyone struggling to reconcile their Queerness with their faith. How God is Love.  LISTEN NOW  04. LGBTQ+ Parenting Chloë Davies , Jani Toivola , Jack López , Maylis Djikalou  discuss: Challenging heteronormative parenting Addressing gendered assumptions Navigating coming out and gender identity exploration Exploring queer parenting, leadership, and workplace inclusion.  LISTEN NOW  05. Mental Health & Overcoming Addiction Erica Burton , Anick Soni , Maylis Djikalou & Suresh Ramdas  discuss: Language framing. Differing interpretations of the definition of 'mental health'. The unique mental health journeys of our speakers, and what having good mental health means.  LISTEN NOW  06. Being A Disabled Leader Mark Travis Rivera , Max Marchewicz , Stewart O’Callaghan and Char Bailey discuss: Challenging stereotypes and breaking barriers Creating inclusive and accessible workplaces Advocating for disability rights and representation  LISTEN NOW  07. Non-Binary Leadership Ben Pechey , Shiva Raichandani , Luke Lopez & Bachul Koul discuss: Our panellists journeys of self-expression How Leaders can protect their mental health  What the panellists would like their legacy to be  LISTEN NOW  08. Psychological Safety Marie-Helene Tyack , Nicole Simpson , Obella Obbo & Scott Sallée discuss: How to create cultures of safety where LGBTQ+ colleagues feel safe to speak up. Ways to leverage intersectionality to foster an inclusive mindset. How to impact culture change through radical empathy. How to better engage, support, and learn from LGBTQ+ colleagues.  LISTEN NOW  09. Leadership Beyond the Binary Polo Lonergan , Olivia Esposito , Jamie Lowe & Rico Jacob Chace discuss: Re-imagining culture, spaces, and opportunities in the workplace to attract and retain trans talent. How to encourage leadership to be visible and vocal trans allies. How to model inclusive language & share tools for colleagues to do the same. Understanding sponsorship and allyship & their importance as ongoing practices.  LISTEN NOW  10. Bodily Autonomy Lisa Marie Hall , Jude Guaitamacchi , Doug Graffeo & Jolinda Johnson discuss: Understanding bodily autonomy and how to support the freedoms of others Contextualising global legal restrictions on gender identity and sexual orientation Reflecting on the impact of these issues on LGBTQ+ mental health Applying an intersectional lens in building safer workplaces for LGBTQ+ employees Learning to model inclusive behaviour and share tools for colleagues to do the same  LISTEN NOW  11. Intergenerational Wisdom Yujx Smith , Erica Rose , Marc Thompson & Jae Sloan discuss: Nurturing future Queer leaders and retain LGBTQ+ talent. Identifying the barriers that prevent intergenerational bonding and mentorship among LGBTQ+ people at work. How intergenerational LGBTQ+ mentorship can also help create a culture of allies at work. Leveraging the power of intergenerational storytelling to sustain corporate activism.  LISTEN NOW  12. Queer Financial Wellbeing Kayus Fernander , Katya Veleva , Manuel Schlothauer & MK Getler-Porizkova discuss: Understanding financial wellbeing from a LGBTQ+ and intersectional lens. Reframing societal and inherited narratives of success, failure and self-worth. The role of allies in closing the financial education gap. Identifying financial resources and information to help LGBTQ+ employees gain more financial stability in the face of unexpected events.  LISTEN NOW  13. LGBTQ+ Anti-Racism Yassine Senghor , XaaaV, Sanjukta Moorthy & Andre Johnsen discuss: Challenging unconscious biases and become consciously inclusive. Learning to take action against racism and enact change in your workplace. Creating moments of connection to understand the experiences of LGBTQ+ colleagues from racialised backgrounds. Expanding your comfort zone with useful tools and resources for uncomfortable conversations. LISTEN NOW While you're here... We Create Space is a global education platform and consultancy focused on workplace talent-development and community-building. Our human-centred approach creates space for people and organisations to thrive through leadership development, team learning experiences, data-backed belonging practices and bespoke content . Find out more here . We also organise FREE community events throughout the year! We offer a variety of ways to get involved - both online and in person. This is a great way to network and learn more about others' experiences, through in-depth discussion on an array of topics. You can find out what events we have coming up here . New ones are added all the time, so make sure you sign up to our newsletter so you can stay up to date!