In 1944, the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency, published a document called the Simple Sabotage Field Manual.

It was not written for trained operatives, but for ordinary citizens living in enemy-controlled territories during World War II. The goal was to help everyday people disrupt organizations from the inside.

One of our primary hopes for this newsletter is that you regularly find new sources of inspiration to strengthen the connection and performance of your team.

That same motivation led us to create a YouTube channel last year.

When leaders hear the phrase leadership team, they almost always think about the executive team. As you have heard us say before, that group carries enormous responsibility. It shapes strategy, culture, and the overall direction of the organization.

One of the more difficult shifts leaders have to make is learning to resist their instinct to give too much advice.

Leaders often ask some version of the same question: How do I improve engagement on my team?

It is an understandable place to start.

If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter, you probably don’t need to be convinced of the importance of psychological safety. At this point, the connection between psychological safety and high performance is well established. Teams that cultivate it collaborate better, innovate more freely, and navigate challenges with greater resilience.

Last summer our family spent a week on Vancouver Island. We took several hikes through old-growth rain forests, and the thing that struck me most wasn’t the size of the trees.

It was the canopy.

In training, we regularly ask people to reflect on the leader behaviors that make them feel unwilling to speak up or share their opinion. The answer we hear most often is simple and sobering:

“I felt dismissed.”

Think about the last time someone brought you a problem. A teammate shared frustration about a peer. A direct report voiced concern about a decision. A colleague described something that felt stuck, unclear, or unfair. How quickly did you move to trying to solve it?

Last week we used a clip from Ted Lasso to explore the power of grace in building relationships. That moment showed us how unexpected compassion and empathy, especially when it feels undeserved, can become a turning point in trust and connection.

Human beings are wired with a negativity bias. When something goes wrong, our brains naturally give it more weight than everything that has gone right. A single disappointment, missed expectation, or awkward interaction can begin to color our entire view of a person.

There is no shortage of conversation about artificial intelligence right now. Executive teams are investing heavily in new tools, platforms, and infrastructure. Boards are asking about AI strategy. Leaders are under pressure to “do something” so they do not fall behind.

One of the most encouraging things we see at the beginning of each year is leadership teams doing the hard work of clarifying their shared focus. They step back and they commit to a small set of strategic objectives that will guide the year ahead.

There is something uniquely energizing about the beginning of a new year. Leadership teams re-enter the work hopeful, motivated, and ready to make meaningful progress. But hope without intention rarely leads to alignment, and it rarely leads to meaningful results.

As the year comes to an end, our team has been practicing something we encourage all our clients to do: slow down long enough to reflect on what went well, what could have gone better and what you learned on a regular basis.

Last week’s newsletter was about why your team needs a Charter. This week we dive deeper into each section, offering examples of each part to help your team start developing one.

Imagine an NFL team showing up to a game with no playbook, or no clear scheme to guide the way they play. Everyone is talented. Everyone is working hard. But each person is operating from their own playbook.

Leadership teams pride themselves on being problem solvers. It is one of the reasons they exist. But even the strongest teams struggle with something far more foundational: accurately identifying what their real problems are in the first place.

Every organization begins with belief. Before there is a mission statement or a strategic plan, there is a conviction, something that feels too important to ignore. It is the “why behind the why.” The deep conviction that made someone say, “This matters enough to build something around it.”