Hope Is Not a Strategy—But It's Where the Work Begins
I don’t normally share music videos on my posts, but these aren’t exactly “normal” times.
My fellow leadership coach, David Mcqueen, recently wrote an outstanding article analyzing the wide-ranging impact of the US Presidential Executive Order 14167, “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferences.” His insights highlight the ripple effects this decision will have on all aspects of US society—and beyond. If you haven’t read it yet, I urge you to make the time.
It’s a thorough and thought-provoking piece, but one line stopped me in my tracks: “Hope is not a strategy.”
Reading those words made me confront something I’ve been wrestling with lately: a sense of hopelessness. As someone who leans heavily on optimism to guide my work and life, hopelessness is not a place I often find myself. And yet, there I was, feeling stuck.
Hopelessness can feel suffocating. It’s that emotion that creeps in when every option, resource, and possibility seems exhausted. It drains your energy and focus, making it hard to move forward. Hope, by contrast, fuels us with purpose, strength, and resilience. And when it’s gone, it can feel like the ground has disappeared beneath us.
Like so many, I had hoped—perhaps naively—that voters (on a global scale) would choose dignity, compassion, collaboration, equality, and safety for all when given the chance. I mean there’s plenty of evidence proving that these qualities drive long-term success and wellbeing in businesses and organizations. So why wouldn’t we want to build our societies on the same principles?
But when hope fades, what then? For a while, I sat with the discomfort, wondering, What next?
And then, as if by some algorithmic magic, this song appeared on my feed. Its final lyrics struck a chord:
“And so we sing a song about hope.
Though I can’t guarantee there’s something real behind it,
I have to try to show my daughters I can find it,
And so today –
When life is crazy and impossible to bear –
It must be there.
Fear never wins.
That’s what I hope.
See? I said ‘hope.’
The work begins.”
There's no doubt, hope is not an effective strategy. But I’ve realized that no strategy can succeed without hope to fuel it. So, as I guide the human-centered leaders and change-makers I work with daily to build “hope-less” strategies—practical, actionable, tangible—I’m reinvigorated by this paradox: it’s often in the depths of hopelessness that hope (and power) is reignited.
After all…
Fear never wins...
The work begins.
