3 lies we’re telling ourselves about work

Leaders are making critical decisions based on outdated assumptions. The organizations that thrive will be the ones that see workplace reality more clearly.

There’s a lot of confusion shaping the modern workplace. Recently, we spoke with a senior leader at a global company who told us, “Everything looks right on paper—our strategy is solid, we have good talent, our growth is scaling, but something still feels off.” That “off” feeling is becoming more common. And it’s not because leaders aren’t trying hard enough. It’s because many of the assumptions guiding those decisions no longer reflect reality. Over 35 years of working within organizations and with a dataset of more than 1.5 million workplace data points, we have watched this same pattern repeat. The strategy is sound, and people are capable, and yet something is quietly breaking.