The Work Beneath the Work - The Year Forms Early

By the time you notice the year has picked up pace, it already has.

Calendars fill quickly. Meetings stack. Decisions are made at speed. Everyone is capable. Everyone is committed. Nothing appears obviously wrong, and yet something subtle is already forming beneath the surface.

Leadership teams rarely pause at the beginning of a year to consciously decide how they will work together when pressure arrives. How disagreement will be handled. How safe it will be to question decisions. How quickly tension will be named. Instead, these patterns are set quietly, early, through small interactions that feel insignificant at the time.

Who speaks first in meetings.
Who gets interrupted.
What happens when someone hesitates or softens their view.

These moments do not feel strategic. But they are deeply influential. They send signals about what is valued, what is risky, and what is better left unsaid.

Early habits form quickly, like wet concrete. At first, there is room to adjust and reshape. Later, the shape is set and teams find themselves working around patterns they never consciously chose.

This reflects the research of Amy Edmondson, whose work on psychological safety shows that teams learn very early whether it is safe to speak up. That belief is not established through a policy or a values statement. It forms through repeated everyday signals about voice, response, and consequence.

When teams describe a year as heavy or exhausting, the cause is rarely a single event. More often, it is the accumulation of small, unexamined habits that hardened quietly over time.

Starting strong together is not about perfect conditions or grand plans. It is about noticing what is forming while there is still room to influence it. Once pace accelerates, teams default to whatever was established early. Changing course midstream always costs more energy than shaping direction at the start.

Strong years are not accidental. They are shaped early, deliberately, and often without fanfare.

Reflective questions

• What patterns are already forming in our team this year, even if we haven’t named them yet?

• Whose voices are most present, and whose are quieter?

• What is one habit we could shape now, before it hardens?

Start strong this week
Mary-Anne