What You See Depends Where You Stand
A few weeks ago, I was in Helsinki speaking to around 300 senior HR leaders about leading people in the age of disruption. One of the ideas I shared came from an unexpected source: the International Space Station.
From orbit, the Earth looks calm - No borders. No headlines. No political arguments. No organisational restructures. No “urgent” emails.
Just one planet moving quietly through space, yet for those of us on the ground, things can feel very different - Deadlines. Uncertainty. Competing priorities. Constant change.
The turbulence feels real because we’re inside it and that’s the point; Perspective doesn’t change reality, but it changes how we respond to it.
Many of the leaders I work with are trying to navigate environments where uncertainty has become normal. The challenge is that when pressure rises, our field of vision narrows. We focus on the immediate problem, the next deadline, the latest crisis.
Sometimes the most valuable thing we can do is zoom out and ask:
- What is actually happening here?
- What story am I telling myself about it?
- What will matter six months from now?
- What am I not seeing because I’m standing too close to the problem?
Good leadership isn’t about pretending turbulence doesn’t exist. It’s about maintaining enough perspective to make good decisions while you’re in it. Because when we zoom out, we often discover that the thing demanding all of our attention isn’t actually the thing that matters most.