For five years, I have volunteered at UC Davis in the No One Dies Alone program. I sit with the dying in their final days when they have no friends or family to be with them. This work has given me a profound sense of purpose. So much so, that I’ve decided to take it further: I’m officially becoming a death doula.
This weekend, I completed my end-of-life doula training to serve at Joshua’s House, a hospice opening this July for unhoused people nearing the end of life. (There are only 8 in the nation but that is a whole other newsletter.)
I expected the training to be emotional. I didn’t expect it to rewire how I think about change management. There was one moment that stopped me in my tracks. The instructor defined grief as “the space of transformation or transition between what we knew before and whatever is happening or who we are becoming.”
I actually gasped. That’s not just grief. That’s change management. It’s what every leader is asking their people to navigate. We research this and consult on this, and yet, I hadn’t fully realized:
Every change initiative is a grief process.
In hospice, we don’t try to fix grief. We witness it. We stay curious. We offer presence in the face of it.
Maybe organizations should try that too. Because grief shows up at work in many ways:
- Resistance to a new process
- Burnout after a reorg
- Silence in a meeting where there used to be energy
Most change strategies skip over the part where we honor what’s being lost. In today’s age of constant disruption, that is seen as a “waste of time.” Leaders focus on planning instead of presence. But here’s the truth:
If you want people to move forward, you have to help them let go.
Grief isn’t a roadblock to performance — it’s the unacknowledged passenger. And the more fluent we become in recognizing it, the more human (and more effective) our change leadership becomes.
At Culture Partners, we say experiences shape beliefs, beliefs drive actions, and actions create results.
The experience of being seen in our grief changes what we believe is possible — at work, and in life. That is the power of a death doula, simply to witness.
Leaders could learn a thing or two from just being present. Leadership isn’t about control sometimes it’s just about presence. It’s presence. Or letting go of the illusion that we can manage change like a checklist. Could it be enough to meet people where they are — in the in-between, the unknown, the becoming.
That’s where transformation really happens.
Elsewhere In Culture
In this piece by Lisa Bodell, we’re reminded that burnout isn’t just a byproduct of overwork—it’s a symptom of a deeper cultural misalignment. The Cherokee tale of the Two Wolves isn’t just folklore—it’s a framework for leadership in 2025. The wolf you feed, whether it’s the one that breeds distrust, chaos, and burnout or the one that champions clarity, autonomy, and purpose, becomes your culture. And culture is not the words on the wall—it’s the behaviors leaders allow, enable, or model every single day. As Bodell shows, companies like Microsoft and Asana aren’t “fixing burnout” through perks or posters—they’re changing the system. They’re feeding the right wolf by making structural decisions that honor focus, streamline tools, and protect employees’ time and energy.
This is culture in action. At Culture Partners, we say culture means results—and articles like this make that truth impossible to ignore. If you want to drive performance, retention, and innovation, your leadership choices must reflect the culture you claim to want. That means killing pointless rules, clarifying roles, and aligning daily work with real purpose. The wolves are always there. The difference between a disengaged team and a high-performing one? Leaders who know which one they’re feeding.
https://www.businessinsider.com/jamie-dimon-says-firing-jerks-improves-workplace-culture-2025-6
Jamie Dimon didn’t mince words at the recent Databricks Summit when he said companies should “fire the assholes.” His point? Workplace culture doesn’t thrive when you tolerate people—employees or customers—who consistently show disrespect. One toxic person can ruin the dynamic of a team, a meeting, even an entire department. And when leaders allow that behavior to persist, they send a clear message: performance matters more than people. That’s not culture—it’s chaos in a suit.
The irony is not lost on anyone that often the asshole in the room IS Dimon, but again, that’s another newsletter. 🙂