Spring Renewal 2026

Redefining Ourselves in a Season of Disruption

Issue 259, April 9, 2026

Spring has always carried a particular kind of promise. The natural world begins again. Light returns. Something dormant wakes up. And for as long as I have been writing this newsletter, I have used this season to pause, look back across the body of work we have built together, and ask a simple question: what do we need to revisit?

This year, that question carries more weight than it has in a long time.

We are living through a period of disruption that is unlike anything most of us have experienced in our professional lives. Artificial intelligence is no longer a theoretical force on the horizon. It is here, reshaping industries, eliminating roles, redefining what expertise means, and forcing a reckoning with questions that most organizations and most individuals have been content to defer. A recent Fortune survey of 750 chief financial officers found that nearly half plan AI-related job reductions this year. The Challenger, Gray and Christmas report for March 2026 identified artificial intelligence as the leading reason cited for job cuts, accounting for more than 15,000 announced reductions in a single month. Meanwhile, Mercer’s Global Talent Trends report shows that employee anxiety about job displacement due to AI has risen from 28 percent in 2024 to 40 percent today.

And it is not just AI. Economic uncertainty continues to press on organizations and individuals alike. Tariff volatility, shifting trade policies, and tightening labor markets are compounding the pressure. Leaders are being asked to deliver more with less, faster, and with fewer guarantees about what the future holds.

In the middle of all of this, something quieter and more personal is also happening. People are reevaluating who they are professionally. They are questioning whether the skills and knowledge that defined their careers still matter. They are wondering whether loyalty to an organization, a role, or an identity that no longer fits is serving them or constraining them. And some, myself included, are actively redefining what they do, how they do it, and what value they bring to a world that looks very different than it did even two years ago.

That is the spirit of this year’s spring renewal. Not the passive optimism of a fresh start, but the active, deliberate work of reassessing, releasing, and rebuilding. Over 258 issues, this newsletter has explored the psychology of change, the dynamics of leadership, and the human dimensions of transformation. What follows is a curated selection of past issues that speak directly to the moment we are in. Each one offers a different lens on the work of renewal, and each one feels more relevant today than when it was first published.

The Psychology of Fresh Starts

Issue 245, January 9, 2026

If there is a natural place to begin a conversation about renewal, it is with the psychology of how fresh starts actually work. In this issue, I examined why the optimism that accompanies a new beginning, whether it is a new year, a new quarter, or a new role, so often fails to produce lasting change. The research is clear: the “fresh start effect,” as Katy Milkman’s work at Wharton has documented, is real. Temporal landmarks genuinely motivate people to pursue goals. But motivation without structure is not enough. Studies on New Year’s resolutions show that the majority fail within weeks, not because the intention was insincere, but because the underlying conditions that produced the old behavior were never addressed. In a season defined by disruption, this insight matters more than ever. Renewal that is built on enthusiasm alone will not survive contact with the pressures most of us face right now. Renewal that is built on honest assessment, structural support, and deliberate practice has a chance.

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When Your Expertise Becomes Obsolete

Issue 239, November 20, 2025

This may be the single most relevant issue in the archive for the moment we are living through. I wrote it as AI was beginning to fundamentally alter how organizations think about the value of accumulated expertise, and the dynamics I described have only accelerated since. The World Economic Forum’s data showing that 41 percent of employers anticipated reducing their workforce due to AI adoption was striking when I published it. Today, those reductions are no longer anticipated. They are happening. The issue explores what happens when the knowledge, skills, and experience that defined your professional identity are no longer sufficient. Not because you failed to keep up, but because the ground shifted beneath you. It examines the psychology of professional identity crisis, the grief that accompanies the loss of relevance, and the EVOLVE framework I developed for navigating that transition. If you are feeling the pressure of AI on your career, your team, or your organization, this is essential reading.

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The Algorithmic Mirror

Issue 253, February 27, 2026

One of the most fascinating and unsettling aspects of working with AI is what it reveals about us. In this issue, I explored how artificial intelligence functions as a mirror, reflecting back the biases, inconsistencies, and unexamined assumptions that organizations and individuals carry but rarely confront. When an AI system produces a recommendation that feels wrong, the instinct is to blame the technology. But more often than not, the system is reflecting patterns that were already embedded in the data, the decisions, and the culture. The identity threat this creates is real. It is uncomfortable to see yourself clearly, whether as an individual or as an organization. But that discomfort is also the beginning of genuine renewal. You cannot redefine yourself until you are willing to see yourself honestly. This issue has become one of the most discussed pieces I have written, and for good reason. It touches something that people are experiencing every day as they work alongside AI tools and confront what those tools reveal about how they actually think and decide.

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The Leadership Paradox

Issue 216, May 1, 2025

I return to this issue frequently in my own thinking because it addresses what I believe is the central paradox of our time: the more capable our technology becomes, the more essential our humanity becomes. Written as organizations were beginning to grapple seriously with AI integration, this piece argued that the leaders who will thrive are not those who compete with AI on efficiency or analysis, but those who lean into the distinctly human capacities that no algorithm can replicate. Emotional intelligence. Ethical reasoning. The ability to create meaning and build trust in the midst of uncertainty. Darwin’s survival of the fittest was never about strength. It was about adaptability. The leaders and professionals who will emerge from this period of disruption are those who understand that their value lies not in what they know, but in how they connect, decide, and lead when the path forward is unclear. That message has never been more urgent than it is right now.

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The Loyalty Trap

Issue 251, February 13, 2026

Renewal requires letting go, and letting go is one of the hardest things human beings do. This issue examined a pattern I encounter constantly in my consulting work: people and organizations that remain committed to roles, relationships, strategies, or identities long after those commitments have stopped serving them. Not because they lack awareness, but because loyalty has become intertwined with identity. The cognitive dissonance is powerful. When you have invested years building expertise in a particular domain, the idea of walking away from that investment feels like a betrayal of everything you have worked for. But Argyris’s research on defensive reasoning shows us clearly that the behaviors we use to protect our sense of competence are often the same behaviors that prevent us from adapting. In a season where many people are being forced to reconsider what they are loyal to and why, this issue offers a framework for distinguishing between commitment that sustains and commitment that constrains.

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When Change Champions Burn Out

Issue 242, December 4, 2025

There is a cost to being the person who drives change, and that cost is rarely acknowledged. This issue explored what happens to the individuals who carry the emotional and operational weight of transformation. The ones who champion new initiatives, navigate resistance, absorb organizational anxiety, and push forward when everyone else is pulling back. They burn out. Not from the work itself, necessarily, but from the sustained expenditure of emotional energy without adequate replenishment. In the current environment, where the pace of change has accelerated beyond anything most professionals have experienced, this issue is a necessary reminder. Renewal is not just about redirecting energy toward new goals. It is about recognizing when that energy has been depleted and making the deliberate choice to restore it. If you have spent the past year or more navigating AI adoption, organizational restructuring, economic uncertainty, or all three simultaneously, this piece may feel uncomfortably personal. That is by design.

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The Busyness Trap

Issue 250, February 6, 2026

Renewal requires space, and space is exactly what most organizations and most professionals do not have. This issue examined the deeply ingrained cultural pattern of equating busyness with value. We wear exhaustion as a status symbol. We fill calendars to capacity and treat the absence of activity as a sign of irrelevance. But the research consistently demonstrates that this pattern is not just unsustainable. It is counterproductive. The most important thinking, the kind that leads to genuine redefinition and strategic clarity, happens in the margins. In the pauses between meetings. In the quiet moments where reflection becomes possible. If you are serious about renewal this spring, whether personal or organizational, the first question to ask is not “What should I do next?” It is “What should I stop doing to make room for what actually matters?”  This issue offers a direct challenge to the assumption that more activity equals more value, and it has never been more timely.

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The Relationship Decay Rate

Issue 249, January 30, 2026

In periods of disruption, relationships are both the first casualty and the most critical resource. This issue explored the natural atrophy of professional connections when they are not actively maintained. The research on relationship maintenance is unambiguous: without intentional investment, even strong professional relationships decay to the point of irrelevance within a surprisingly short period of time. And yet, when we think about renewal, we almost always think about skills, strategies, and goals. We rarely think about relationships. That is a mistake. The people who navigate disruption most effectively are not the ones with the best technical skills or the most impressive resumes. They are the ones with the deepest and most actively maintained networks of trust. If your spring renewal includes only professional development and strategic planning but does not include a deliberate effort to reconnect with the people who matter to your work and your growth, it is incomplete.

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Organizational Memory Loss

Issue 258, April 2, 2026

Last week’s issue addressed a pattern that is directly relevant to the work of renewal: the inability of organizations to retain and apply what they have already learned. Renewal is not just about looking forward. It is about being honest about what has come before. The organizations that repeat the same failures, launch the same initiatives with the same structural flaws, and commission the same analyses that previous teams already completed are not failing to learn. They are failing to remember. And in a period where organizations are moving quickly to adopt AI, restructure teams, and redefine workflows, the risk of repeating past mistakes is higher than ever. This issue examines why documentation alone is not memory, why learning must be embedded in how work is performed rather than archived after the fact, and what leaders can do to ensure that the lessons of the past actually inform the decisions of the present. If your organization is embarking on transformation this spring, start by asking what you already know that you are not using.

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The Work of Renewal

I want to close this issue on a personal note, because this spring renewal feels different from the ones I have written before.

Over the past several months, I have been doing exactly what I am asking you to consider. I have been redefining my own work, my own methods, and my own relationship with the approaches, definitions, tools, and technologies that are reshaping our field. I have integrated AI into my consulting practice and my research process, offloading mundane tasks and helping my strategic thinking in ways that would have been unimaginable even a year ago. Not as a replacement for the expertise and judgment I have built over decades, but as a collaborator that extends what I can do and how I can serve the leaders and organizations I work with.

It has not been a seamless process. There has been uncertainty, resistance from within myself as much as from external skeptics, and the kind of honest self-assessment that is always uncomfortable. But it has also been invigorating. Because what I have discovered, and what I believe these nine issues collectively demonstrate, is that renewal is not about abandoning who you are. It is about evolving who you are in response to a world that will not wait for you to be ready.

The professionals who will emerge from this period of disruption, positioned for growth, are not the ones who ignored AI, resisted change, or clung to expertise that the market no longer values in the same way. They are the ones who did the hard work of looking honestly at themselves, letting go of what no longer serves them, rebuilding their networks and their skills with intention, and leaning into the distinctly human capacities that no technology can replicate.

That is what spring renewal means in 2026. Not a reset. A redefinition.

These nine issues represent a fraction of the 258 we have published to date, but they form a coherent roadmap for the work ahead. Start where you are. Be honest about what needs to change. Make room for the reflection that genuine renewal requires. And remember that the most important asset you bring to this moment is not your technical knowledge or your institutional experience. It is your capacity to adapt, connect, and lead with clarity in the face of uncertainty.

Spring is here. The question is not whether the world around you is changing. It is whether you are willing to change with it.

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Join the Conversation

What does renewal look like for you this spring? Are you redefining your role, your skills, your approach to leadership? I would love to hear how you are navigating this moment. Share your thoughts with me on LinkedIn or subscribe to Ideas and Innovations on Substack for weekly insights on leadership, transformation, and the human side of organizational change.

The Truth About Transformation

If this issue resonated with you, my book The Truth About Transformation explores why most transformation efforts fail and what leaders can do differently. Available on Amazon.

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