The Book Is Done (But the Stories Never Are)
The book is done. Finally. After months of listening, transcribing, analyzing, and occasionally arguing with myself like a deranged panel of one, it’s finished. You’d think that would feel definitive, but even as I close the last chapter, a familiar thought sneaks back in — like that uninvited guest who shows up just as you’re doing the dishes. Managing change — or crisis, or anything that threatens to ruin the illusion of control - isn’t really about managing facts. It’s about managing stories. Not the grand epics of the powerful, not the government’s carefully pressed statements with their shiny slogans, but the small, handcrafted tales we spin just to stay upright. The stories we use to make chaos feel organized, to justify our choices, and to convince ourselves that we still have agency while the roof is caving in. The focus groups I spent time with drove this home. Everyone had a story — their survival kit. The logic didn’t always hold, but the narrative did. They needed a ve...