We're Finally Starting to Ask Better Questions

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Shannon Hurst

Pressure. Grief. Performance. Helping organizations recognize invisible risks before they become visible problems.

July 14, 2026

Over the past year, I've found myself smiling more and more as I scroll through LinkedIn, listen to leadership podcasts, read industry articles, and attend conferences. Not because everything has suddenly changed, but because the questions are changing. For a long time, organizations have focused on outcomes. We measured incidents, productivity, engagement, turnover, absenteeism, and performance. We became incredibly good at looking backward, trying to understand why something happened after the fact. Those conversations are still important, but lately I've noticed something different. Leaders are beginning to ask what comes before the outcome, and I think that's one of the most encouraging shifts I've seen in years.

Instead of asking only how to reduce incidents or improve performance, organizations are beginning to wonder why communication is breaking down, why experienced employees are making decisions they normally wouldn't, why good people are disengaging, and why one team thrives under pressure while another struggles. Those aren't just operational questions. They're human questions. They recognize something many of us have sensed for a long time, that performance doesn't exist separately from the people creating it.

Some people may not know this about me, but my work really began with grief. I've had the privilege of walking alongside people navigating some of life's most difficult experiences. Sometimes that grief followed the death of someone they loved. Other times it came through divorce, illness, caregiving, financial uncertainty, burnout, job loss, infertility, or simply realizing life wasn't unfolding the way they had imagined. Over time, I came to understand that one of the biggest misconceptions about grief is that it's only about death. I don't see it that way. I see grief as our response to meaningful change and loss, whether that's the loss of certainty, health, identity, financial security, relationships, or the future we thought we were building.

Once you begin looking through that lens, you realize grief isn't a rare experience. It's woven throughout everyday life, and yet it's something we've never become very comfortable talking about. Most of us don't want to burden other people. We don't want to appear weak, incapable, or as though we can't handle what's in front of us. In the workplace especially, many people worry that acknowledging they're struggling will somehow change the way they're viewed. So we become remarkably good at carrying things quietly. Sometimes that's exactly what we need to do, but sometimes carrying everything alone comes at a cost.

One of the frameworks I teach in my grief workshops is called The Denali Effect, and it grew out of a simple observation. When people are hurting, they rarely need someone to immediately fix their situation. More often, they need someone willing to sit beside them without trying to solve them. Someone who notices. Someone who listens. Someone who acknowledges what they're carrying and reminds them they don't have to carry it completely alone. Presence has a remarkable way of changing the weight of a load, even when it doesn't change the load itself.

That idea stayed with me because I eventually realized it extended far beyond grief. As I continued working with individuals, families, leaders, and organizations, I started noticing the same patterns everywhere I looked. Whether someone was grieving a loved one or navigating relentless workplace pressure, the changes often appeared in similar ways. Communication shifted. Patience became shorter. Decision-making changed. People withdrew. Small shortcuts slowly became normal. Relationships became strained. None of these behaviours appeared overnight. They accumulated gradually, often so gradually that the people experiencing them didn't recognize the changes themselves.

That was the moment everything connected for me. I realized we weren't simply looking at performance issues. We were watching human experiences become visible through behaviour. Pressure leaves fingerprints long before it creates headlines. Long before an incident occurs, before someone resigns, before burnout becomes obvious or relationships begin to fracture, there are often subtle signals that something is changing. The challenge isn't that those signals don't exist. The challenge is that we've never really had a language to recognize them or talk about them constructively.

That's what led me to develop the language tools and observation frameworks I use today. Not because organizations need another model or another checklist, but because I believe we desperately need better conversations. Without language, curiosity quickly becomes judgement. A leader notices communication changing and asks, "What's wrong with you?" A supervisor notices deadlines slipping and says, "Why aren't you doing your job?" A coworker sees someone withdrawing and assumes they no longer care. Most of the time those conversations begin with good intentions, but without a shared language they often sound like criticism instead of concern.

Imagine how differently those conversations unfold when the language changes. Instead of asking what's wrong with someone, we ask what has changed. Instead of assuming poor performance, we become curious about the conditions surrounding it. Instead of reacting only after visible problems emerge, we learn to recognize quieter patterns much earlier. That's the purpose behind frameworks like SIGNAL, SCOPED, DRIP, and RIDE. They aren't designed to diagnose people or label behaviour. They're designed to help people notice what they're already seeing and give them a constructive way to begin the conversation.

That's also why I often say I help organizations recognize invisible risks before they become visible problems. Those invisible risks aren't limited to safety. They exist in communication, leadership, culture, decision-making, relationships, and the cumulative pressures people carry every single day. When we recognize those patterns earlier, we create opportunities to support people before the consequences become visible.

Perhaps that's why I'm so encouraged by the conversations I'm seeing today. Across industries, leaders are talking about psychological safety, employee wellbeing, resilience, retention, human performance, and organizational culture in ways they weren't even a few years ago. Awareness is growing. The challenge now is turning that awareness into meaningful action, and I believe that begins with language.

One of the beliefs that has become central to my work is this: Every organization has a language. That language becomes its culture. The words we choose influence what people notice, what feels safe to say, whether someone asks for help, and whether pressure remains invisible or becomes something we can address together. I believe some of the greatest leadership, safety, and performance challenges organizations face are rooted in human experiences we've never been taught to recognize or talk about.

The good news is that I think we're finally beginning to change that. We're asking better questions. My hope is that together we continue building a better language to answer them. Because when we learn to recognize people earlier, support them sooner, and have better conversations, we don't just create safer workplaces. We create stronger organizations, healthier cultures, and environments where people have a better chance to do their best work.

Thanks for reading.

If these ideas resonate with you, let's continue the conversation.

I write about pressure, grief, leadership, communication, and the invisible patterns that shape performance before they become measurable outcomes.

You can also visit gowermedia.ca to explore workshops, speaking engagements, and additional resources.