January is usually framed as a season of fresh starts. New habits, new goals, new ways of working.

In our personal lives, that framing can be motivating. But even there, we know real change rarely sticks unless we first reflect on our baseline: the beliefs, habits, and choices that brought us to this point where we are pursuing change. We do not become better partners, friends, or parents simply by saying we will “do better” without first understanding how we have been showing up and what has not been working.

The same is true in our organizations.

As the new year begins, many leaders are eager to move forward: to set strategy, roll out initiatives, and build momentum for growth and opportunity. That desire is not the problem; it is how we drive innovation and build healthy companies.

The problem lies in ignoring what we’re building on.

Momentum cannot rest on unresolved strain and expect to be maintained. When trust with clients or teammates has been stretched thin, when teams are exhausted, when people are still carrying the negative impact of past decisions, starting something new without addressing what broke can undermine the success of every initiative that follows.

Repair does not mean stopping progress. It means planning for what is next while also tending to what has been fractured.

This quarter in our Snack BOxD, we are equipping leaders to focus on repair: building it into how you set direction, lead your teams, and create an actionable, data-informed plan for the year ahead.

A Familiar Story About Trust

Think about a real relationship in your life where something went wrong.

• Maybe they made a decision that affected your time, money, or stability without really consulting you.

• Maybe they promised to show up for something important and simply did not.

• Maybe they shared something you asked them to keep private, or brushed off a concern that really mattered to you.

You might have tried to talk about what happened and been met with defensiveness, minimization, or a quick “let’s just move on.” Or past reactions may have already taught you it was not safe to bring it up at all. Either way, their response (or lack of one) nudges you into self-protection. You start to hold back your thoughts, ask for less, and lower your expectations for what the relationship can be.

Most of us are clear about what repair should look like in these situations. We expect the person who caused harm to acknowledge what happened, apologize for the impact, and, where possible, make it right - or at least offer a plan that shows the relationship matters enough to protect going forward.

What does not work is pretending nothing happened or announcing a fresh start while the tension still hangs in the air. When repair is skipped, people adjust how much openness and energy they are willing to expend on the relationship. They may stay, but the relationship does not really heal or reach its full potential.

This probably feels familiar not just in your personal relationships, but in the way things play out at work too because your team created of a complex web of relationships.

Teams are built on connections between leaders and individuals, across functions, and with the people they serve. Over the past several years, many of those relationships have been under pressure: navigating a global pandemic, sudden shifts to remote and hybrid work, return-to-office debates, budget cuts and hiring freezes, reorgs and layoffs. People have been asked to adapt quickly, carry uncertainty for long stretches of time, and absorb difficult decisions. In some cultures, “do more with less” became the default edict, even if no one intended it to.

When trust is harmed at work, we tend to respond the same way we do in our personal relationships. We pull back, become cautious, and stop giving the benefit of the doubt to those we no longer see as trustworthy. Over time, without intentional repair, that distrust shows up in how well our teams cohere and collaborate, in the quality of decision making, and in overall organizational performance.

Right now, many organizations are starting the year by setting new goals, rolling out new initiatives, or asking people to stretch once again. But asking people to move forward without first acknowledging what they have been carrying often has the opposite effect. Instead of creating momentum, it creates resistance.

If leaders want the year ahead to unfold differently, they need to start from a different posture.

Laying the Groundwork for Repair

Before leaders jump into action, there is groundwork that needs to be done.

First, there is naming reality. Saying out loud that trust has been stretched, that people have carried a lot of undue burden, and that the organization has not always gotten it right. This sounds simple, but many teams have never heard their leaders name these truths directly.

Second, there is choosing a posture. Repair is impossible to do successfully from a defensive stance. It requires curiosity and humility. Leaders have to be ready not just to explain, but to listen.

Third, leaders have to create space for honest input. People need to know where and how they can safely talk about what has not been working. That might look like structured retrospectives, listening sessions, or focus groups with a mix of associates across levels. Whatever the format, the message should be clear:

“We want to understand the impact of the last season, and your experience matters.”

Only after this groundwork is in place can repair begin in a meaningful way. Without it, whatever comes next can feel performative or like a check-the-box exercise. With it, reflection becomes the starting point not just for real repair, but for the kind of growth, innovation, and business results that you’re working toward.

Where to Start

Here’s the good news: now is an ideal time to build repair into your plans for 2026. I'm not asking you to launch a whole new initiative that will delay or derail your goals. This should be part of your plan and communication strategy for the work already in flight. Including this increases the odds that your planned work succeeds.

Rather than launching a big “repair initiative”, begin small and specific:

• Choose one team or area where you know trust has been stretched.

• Name your intent: that you want to understand how the last season has landed and what repair might look like as you move forward.

• Host one conversation that is explicitly about impact, not performance or projects. Ask a few grounding questions, listen more than you speak, and resist the urge to explain everything in real time.

• 
  

Then, do one simple but critical thing: write down what you hear. Notice the themes, the phrases that repeat, the moments when energy drops in the room. That is not just “soft” information. It is data about the conditions your people are working in and what might undercut the goals you are setting for 2026.

This quarter in our Snack BOxD, we are equipping leaders to integrate this kind of repair into their 2026 planning: building it into how you set direction, lead your teams, and create an actionable, data-informed plan for the year ahead.

In the next article, we will move from why and where to start into the how: what repair actually looks like in day-to-day leadership, including what you say, how you show up, and how you follow through so that trust can be rebuilt and strengthened while the work continues.