The Ice Is Melting Whether You’re Ready or Not

Standing on the shore of Green Bay on Easter Monday, watching ice break apart on the water.

I’d left Australia two weeks ago — heading into autumn. Here in Wisconsin, they’re heading into spring. The seasons in transition. The old giving way to the new.

And as I stood there, Trump was on Truth Social threatening to bomb Iran into compliance.

I’m not going to wade into the geopolitics. But I will say this:

It is a very old school leadership move. Push hard enough, threaten loudly enough, and reality bends to your will.

I see it everywhere. Not just in geopolitics.

The executive who responds to talent loss with more surveillance instead of better questions.

The leadership team that mandates return-to-office because that’s how it’s always been done — and then acts surprised when their best people walk.

The board that doubles down on yesterday’s strategy because the alternative feels like chaos.

Same instinct. Different scale. If I just push hard enough, the old world will come back.

It won’t.

We are living through what I call the Decade of Radical Change — three simultaneous disruptions reshaping everything: AI, the Polycrisis, and a workforce that has permanently changed its relationship with work.

None of these are reversing.

The ice is melting. The question isn’t whether to adapt. It’s whether you’re designing for what comes after — or still standing on the ice when it breaks.

𝗦𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗮𝘀𝗸 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻. 𝗜𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀.

My wish this Easter is that when the ice finally clears, we’ve built something worth uncovering. Something more generous, more inclusive, more fit for the world we’re actually in — not the one we’re clinging to.

I recorded a short video from the shore if you want the fuller reflection.

What are you seeing in your own organisation — leaders designing for spring, or still waiting for winter to come back?