In Elizabeth Strout’s new novel The Things We Never Say, the teacher Artie asks a memorable question that has stayed with me over the past few months:

“I wonder why people never say anything real.”

Later, he comes to understand that “it was a private thing to be alive”.

There is something recognisable in the distance between those two observations. Much of what matters inside an organisation remains private, even when many people are experiencing the same uncertainty. Difficult decisions are presented as settled. Experiments become success stories. Doubts are removed before the work is shared.

Perhaps that is why the most useful professional conversations rarely begin with polished answers. They begin when someone says something real about what is working, what is difficult and what they still do not understand.