In this next installment of leading well in uncertainty, I’m delighted to showcase the work of Steve Botterill. In his new book The Architecture of Hope, he uses a parable of an airport waiting lounge (one of my favourite and most familiar settings) to explore how hope shows up and how it’s led.
He suggests that hope shows up in various forms that don’t always look like hope, so they are easy to miss, crowd out, or dismiss as insignificant.
Hope can look like positivity and vision. But it can also look like calm and stability. Or growth and learning. Or connection. Or action and courage. Sometimes all of them, depending on what a situation requires. Hopeful leaders ask, “What does this moment actually need?”
Hope “allows strategy to survive contact with reality.” It’s about being willing to stay engaged and move within a new set of constraints when things don’t work out as originally planned.
Hope is “architectural not accidental.” It’s designed in.
And it’s relational. People mirror what they notice. Which is helpful, because hope is also a “shared responsibility.”
If you’re a leader who’s striving to stay hopeful, be encouraged. Hope can show up as steadiness, curiosity and community — not just as optimism. There are lots of ways to be good at it, and my guess is that you are modelling it in many ways already.