Crisis as a Mirror
The call is coming from inside the house.
A few weeks ago, I finally watched Sinners: Ryan Coogler’s Southern-Gothic reminder that the scariest haunt is the past we keep reenacting. Control. Shame. Looping harm. And two days later, those same notes echoed, this time in my inbox…
A young staffer turned in their first spreadsheet. The manager’s email exploded into five paragraphs of verbal papercuts, copied to multiple spectators. A week later, the staffer hit Reply-All: “I resign. CC’ing for visibility.” I winced watching an old power script play out—public shaming, hierarchy posing as help, visibility weaponized as punishment. An all-too-familiar haunting.
My organizational culture brain cut to researcher Bayo Akomolafe's warning: “the way we respond to the crisis is part of the crisis.” One public shaming haunted a team; multiply that power script across sectors and societies, and whole nations are haunted. From climate collapse to democratic backsliding to systemic inequity—we can’t keep handing today’s crises to yesterday’s reflexes.
As a strategist shaped by years as a mission-driven executive, I lean on four moves to exorcise old power scripts:
Name the ghosts. Run a “power audit” of who speaks and who absorbs blame. Say them out loud.
Close the theater. Shift critique from spectacle to co-reflection. CC to celebrate growth.
Reward repair. Tie leadership goals to how relationships rebound, not just how fast tasks move.
Practice future tense. Pause before green-lighting: Does this choice seed the future we’re building, or the system we swore to dismantle?
Next week, I’m heading to The Aspen Institute's Action Forum with this lingering question in mind:
Can we evolve faster than the challenges chasing us?
Originally appeared on LinkedIN.
If old power scripts have surfaced, let’s redesign systems to interrupt them.
