Here's a scene.
A competitor announces something. By lunch there's an emergency meeting. By evening there's a new priority. By Friday, three teams have dropped what they were doing.
Nothing about the competitor's announcement was actually a threat. But the company reacted like a body that heard a twig snap.
What's the pattern?
In my next book I write about triggers: the nervous system flaring at a shadow because it once saw a real threat. The pounding chest, the urge to fight or run, when there's no bear. It's a learned response. And you can't think your way out of it in the moment. You can only learn to pause before it takes the wheel.
Organizations have the exact same wiring. A company that got burned in 2008 flinches at every downturn headline. A company that lost a big client once treats every complaint as an emergency. The trigger fires, the whole body reacts, and everyone drops what mattered.
The tell is the same as in a person. Reactivity looks like energy but it's the opposite. A reactive company is always busy and never gets anywhere.
The organizations that come through change well aren't the ones with no triggers. They're the ones that built a pause between the stimulus and the response.
What should leaders do now?
So, three things.
Find your triggers. What news makes your company drop everything? Name them out loud. A trigger you can see is one you can pause.
Install a pause. A rule that no priority changes on the day of the news. Sleep on it. Most emergencies look different at breakfast.
And learn the trigger's story. Every organizational flinch traces back to a real wound. Tell that story so people understand the reflex, and can decide whether it still serves them.
You can't stop a company from having a nervous system. You can teach it to breathe.
What's the headline that makes your company drop everything, and did it ever actually need to?
Related: Does change fatigue exist, or is it change without a pattern?
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