I took my daughter to Washington, D.C. recently, and we spent an afternoon learning about history. We watched the “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and then headed over to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
At one point in the history gallery, we stopped in front of a statue of Thomas Jefferson, and I read a plaque explaining that he enslaved people, had children with women he enslaved, and enslaved those children too.
She looked at me, confused, and said, “But I thought Thomas Jefferson was Black.”
I asked her why.
“Because of Hamilton.”
The impact Lin-Manuel Miranda’s production of Hamilton on her was profound.
That is the version of history she emotionally connected to. The music, the storytelling, the casting, the energy of it. Hamilton made these historical figures feel current and human in a way a textbook never could. So when she pictured the founders, she pictured the version that felt most real to her. In the production, Jefferson is played by a Black actor.
I have been thinking about that moment a lot because it demonstrates something important about beliefs.
No one sat my daughter down and told her Thomas Jefferson was Black (or white for that matter). Nobody explicitly taught her that idea. She absorbed a story that felt emotionally real, and over time, her brain filled in the rest.
The belief formed invisibly.
That is what makes beliefs so powerful and so dangerous inside organizations too. They form, sometimes without our even knowing it. People absorb signals without realizing they are learning them. Then eventually those signals harden into assumptions about what is true.
Leaders tend to think people make decisions based on facts. If leadership communicates clearly enough, explains the strategy enough times, and present enough information, people will align and take action.
But people do not act based on information alone. People act in alignment with what they believe. Experiences shape beliefs long before logic catches up.
Stories create emotional context around information. They shape what feels trustworthy, risky, admirable, and possible. A story can stay with someone far longer than a slide deck ever will. That is why storytelling matters so much inside organizations.
Every company has stories people repeat constantly. Stories about who gets promoted, how leaders react under pressure, whether accountability actually exists, and what happens when someone fails.
Most of these stories were never intentionally created. They formed through repeated experiences and eventually became assumptions about how the company really works. And those assumptions drive behavior.
A leadership team can launch new values and communicate a clear strategy, but employees are watching something else entirely. They are watching how leaders behave when things get difficult. They are watching whether people are treated with dignity during hard moments. They are watching whether accountability applies equally to everyone. Those moments become stories. And the stories people tell each other shape culture far more than the official messaging does.
The most powerful cultural stories are rarely the official ones. They are the ones people absorb without realizing they are learning them at all.
That is why leading with love matters.
People know when a leader genuinely cares about them. They know when accountability is fair. They know when leaders tell the truth during difficult moments. And they tell stories about it.
The leaders who create strong cultures understand that people remember experiences more than messaging. Over time, those moments become the culture. If you do not shape the narrative inside your culture, people will shape it for you.
And they may not even realize they are doing it.
Elsewhere in Culture
Birth Rates and the Crisis of Confidence This week on CEO Daily Brief, I unpacked a New York Times essay arguing that falling birth rates are not just about affordability. Researchers are calling it the “vibes theory,” the idea that people no longer feel psychologically safe enough to commit to the future. I connected that directly to the workplace because organizations face the same problem when employees lose confidence in what comes next. I also talked about AI, uncertainty, and why leaders need to create meaning during periods of instability instead of feeding fear. Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ceo-daily-brief-with-dr-jessica-kriegel/id1725350421?i=1000767169841 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0jaTuvp5XXFAemkD7Fu0Q4?si=f3bcb29b1a38497d
Getting a Job in a Layoff Economy My cohost John Frehse and I had a brutally honest conversation about how people are approaching the job market after layoffs. We talked about why vulnerability does not make someone less capable and why authenticity creates far more connection than polished self-promotion. One of the biggest takeaways was that leaders are often more willing to help when someone is honest about being scared instead of pretending they have everything figured out. Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ceo-daily-brief-with-dr-jessica-kriegel/id1725350421?i=1000767356760 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Gk41YvSaweU6j05pUN1e0?si=a7ac699dffc24410
Why Leaders Should Consider Mediation Before Conflict Escalates I sat down with Kimberly Taylor, CEO of JAMS, to talk about why more organizations are using mediation as a strategic business tool instead of waiting for conflicts to spiral into expensive legal battles. We discussed how unresolved conflict drains organizations of time, money, and focus, and why leaders often become too attached to being right instead of solving the actual problem. It was a fascinating conversation about listening, empathy, and preserving relationships before things break down completely. Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ceo-daily-brief-with-dr-jessica-kriegel/id1725350421?i=1000767555364 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5w1jguAl8X00niCTsaHTIQ?si=431eccf0c84240e4
And later this week…
Why Employees Sabotage AI Rollouts Dr. Chesley Black, SVP of Global Workplace Experience Strategy & Innovation at SPS Global, joined me to discuss why some employees are quietly resisting AI adoption at work. We talked about the challenge of leading five generations through massive technological change and why trust matters more than the technology itself. Ches shared how organizations gather employee insights through workplace research, focus groups, and behavioral observation to make change feel less threatening and more human.
Death as Team Building My cohost John Frehse and I explored one of the more uncomfortable truths about human connection at work: tragedy often bonds teams faster than success does. We talked about how grief, hardship, and shared suffering tend to break down professional walls and create deeper empathy between people. The conversation touched on everything from NASA astronauts bonding through loss to why painful experiences often create the strongest sense of meaning and connection inside teams.