Inside The Messy Middle - When You Are Asked To Lead Change You Did Not Design

Inside the Messy Middle is a special series from The Inner Game of Change

This fortnightly short series is for people who carry responsibility inside complexity.
Between strategy and delivery. Between intent and impact. Between what was imagined and what must now be made real.

These episodes are not about tools or frameworks. They are reflections on judgement, dignity, and the human cost of change as it is actually lived.

Episode One

When you are asked to lead change you did not design

Change often arrives already in motion.

The decision has been made. The direction is set. And somehow, you are now responsible for carrying it.

In this opening episode, I reflects on what it means to lead change you did not design, and why the messy middle is not a failure of leadership, but where judgement and dignity matter most.

This episode invites you to pause, notice the moment you are standing in, and recognise that certainty is not the work. Judgement is.

Ali Juma
@The Inner Game of Change podcast

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Chapters

• 0:05 When Change Lands In Your Lap
• 0:39 Naming The Messy Middle
• 1:05 Inheritance Over Clarity
• 2:25 Why The Middle Feels Heavy
• 3:57 Orienting Questions For Inherited Change
• 6:13 Dignity As The Real Goal
• 6:26 About The Series And What’s Next

Transcript

Ali: 0:05

There are moments at work when you realize something has already shifted. The decision has been made, the direction has been set, the language is already circulating, and somehow quietly the change has landed in your lap. Not because you designed it, not because you fully shaped it, but because you sit where the work meets the people. If that moment feels familiar, it is not because you are behind, it's because you are inside the work. This series is called inside the messy middle, because that is where many people actually live their working lives, between strategy and delivery, between intent and impact, between what was imagined and what now needs to be carried. Change is often spoken about as if it begins with a clarity. In practice it often begins with inheritance. You inherit a narrative, you inherit a timeline, you inherit decisions made elsewhere under different conditions, and then you are asked to lead. This is where the inner game of change begins. When you are asked to lead change you did not design, you're not primarily managing plans or tasks, you are managing judgment. You are deciding what to hold steady, what to translate, what to soften, what not to pass on unchanged. That work is rarely visible, but it is deeply human. There is also an emotional impact in this moment that is not often named uncertainty, second guessing, a quiet sense of exposure, not panic, not drama, more like a background hum that asks Am I seeing this clearly? Why does this feel heavier than it looks? Am I the only one feeling this? Self doubt often shows up here, not because you are incapable, but because you are being asked to stand inside work that is unfinished. This is where it helps to talk about the middle explicitly. The idea of the middle did not emerge as a weakness. Historically it emerged as a response to scale. As organizations grew larger and more complex, they needed people who could hold context, translate direction, and stabilize work as it moved through the system. The middle existed to connect strategy to reality. Over time, particularly as efficiency and speed became dominant lenses, the language around the middle shifted. The work did not disappear, but it became less visible. In many organizations today, the work of judgment in the middle is still relied on, but not always explicitly designed for. People in the middle are expected to translate, absorb and adapt change as it moves through the real work. That reliance is there even when the role is not always clearly named, recognized or supported. This is not a failure, it is a design reality worth noticing. And it helps explain why the middle so often feels heavy. The middle is where strategy meets reality, where consequences are felt first, where judgment matters more than certainty. Most change makers sit in the middle too, not always by title, but by position, between leaders and teams, between vision and delivery, between what should happen and what can happen. So when change lands in your lap like this, it is worth pausing, not to fix it immediately, not to rush past it, just to steady yourself inside it. Here are a few things to consider. These are not steps or pieces of advice, just ways to orient your thinking. First, what part of this change am I actually being asked to carry and what part am I not? Many people observe more than is truly theirs. Clarifying where your responsibility begins and ends can reduce unnecessary weight. This is not avoidance, it is dignity. Second, what feels unsettled for me right now and why? Uncertainty often disguises itself as frustration or fatigue. Pausing to notice what feels unsettled can stop that emotion from leaking into how the change is carried forward. This is inner work before outer action. Third, where does my judgment matter more than my certainty? When inherited change you are rarely expected to have all the answers, but you are expected to make thoughtful calls. What to say now, what to delay, what to translate, what to protect. This reframes leadership from pretending to know to choosing wisely. Fourth, what would protecting dignity look like here for me and for others? Not speed, not compliance, not perfect alignment. Dignity, how people are spoken to, what is acknowledged, what pressure is observed quietly so others are not exposed. This is where the middle does its most important work. If you are being asked to lead change you did not design, pay attention to the moment you are standing in. Not to escape it, not to solve it too quickly, but to notice what the work is asking of you. Because change is not the goal. The goal is the work continuing with dignity. And the messy middle is where the dignity is either preserved or lost. This is inside the messy middle, a special series from the Inner Game of Change. These episodes are reflections for people carrying responsibility inside complexity. No frameworks, no prescriptions, just careful attention to the moments we usually rush past. In our next episode we will explore what it means to translate strategy before it even makes sense to you. Until then, pay attention to the moment you are standing in