Sometimes the change lands on your desk, and you didn’t ask for it. A new strategy from above. A layoff decision. A shift in hours. A competitor’s surprise move. You’re still expected to lead your team through it.

In this episode of The Fault Line, hosts Gary Lancina and Kim Scribner dig into what it takes to lead through change you didn’t choose, especially when you’re not sure it’s the right call. They cover the different flavors of imposed change, from the ones you’re excited about to the ones you don’t believe in. They share stories from their own careers, including pushing back on an initiative, delivering hard news, and pivoting when events outside anyone’s control change the plan.

In this episode:

• Why limited visibility, like seeing the world through a knothole, can lead to the wrong conclusions about a change
• How to lead with curiosity and ask “why” even when you’re several levels down
• Why you need to deal with your own emotions before you communicate a change to your team
• How being transparent about what you know and don’t know builds trust
• Why the way your culture handles the question “why” says a lot about it
• Why change is a skill you can build, and how to practice it
• How to understand your own agency: pick your battles, advocate for what you believe, and make your choice

Collaboration doesn’t mean consensus, but you always have a choice in how you respond.

Follow The Fault Line wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube, and tell us what topics you’d like us to tackle next.

It’s easy to decide what to do next. It’s much harder to decide what to stop. In this episode of The Fault Line, Kim Scribner and Gary Lancina dig into why we pile more onto our plates, and why “busy” has become a badge of honor.

They cover the habits and false urgency that keep us doing work that no longer matters, the burnout risk for high performers who keep getting handed more, and the emotional pull of staying “fully loaded.” Along the way, they share stories of the weekly report nobody read, the zombie project that kept coming back, and the moment a product’s returns start to flatten. They also talk about practical ways to create space: pausing instead of quitting, reducing frequency, separating glass balls from rubber balls, and asking “what’s changed since we last said yes?”

Whether you’re leading a team or trying to protect your own focus, this conversation will make you rethink what’s worth your time.

How much data is actually enough to make a call? In this episode of The Fault Line, Kim Scribner and Gary Lancina break down the difference between KPIs, leading indicators, and the metrics that actually drive action — plus why cluttered dashboards often signal busyness, not clarity.

The real focus: sufficiency. Gary shares stories from CPG and hypergrowth startups where "we need more data" turned out to be fear or ego in disguise — including a price decision that took two years to approve, despite data everyone already had. They also dig into AI's growing role in decision-making and how to build a culture where people are trusted to act before the picture is perfectly complete.