Everyone is waiting...

Jan 30, 2026

There are many organisations busy and full of capable people, and yet remain oddly static. No projects have been formally stopped; if anything, they keep piling up. No decisions have been publicly reversed. Yet, progress is at a crawl.

Direction is implied rather than stated. Authority is assumed rather than specified. Decisions are suggested, but not quite confirmed.

And the status quo remains business as usual.

Somewhere along the line, momentum has drained away, replaced by a low-level sense of anticipation with no clear objective. Everyone remains busy and well-intentioned, but feeling like they are living in a corporate limbo. Energy has shifted, conversations have changed and frustration is growing.

Why? Because no one can see what it is that they are waiting for.

Waiting is not usually announced. It forms.

You can usually feel when an organisation has slipped into this state through a pattern of small signals that simply accumulate over time.

Until then, it has a habit of hiding in plain sight.

1. Decisions are discussed, but never quite land (or stick)

Full diaries with back-to-back meetings where options are explored, risks acknowledged, and different perspectives invited into the room. Yet the same topics resurface, often with little reframing or language change. Each discussion may feel reasonable and progressive in isolation, but together form a pattern.

When decisions don’t land or stick, they start to feel provisional.

Teams hesitate to commit if they feel that things may still change. Why invest and waste energy and effort, when there may be a new path set within an unspecified timeline?

Plans are kept flexible, conversations lose urgency, and energy is held back.

What makes this particularly difficult to spot is that nothing has obviously gone wrong. No poor decision has been made. No clear failure has occurred. Yet momentum erodes quietly as certainty is deferred.

2. Activity continues, but energy slowly drains away

Uncertainty changes how people relate to responsibility.

When the direction is unclear, taking ownership feels less like leadership and more like exposure. The energy becomes drained and tired. People wait to be asked, or for someone else to put their hand up first. It is an act of self-preservation because the conditions no longer reward initiative. No one wants to own an outcome they cannot control. Accountability simply retreats.

However, soon the pattern shifts. Frustrations surface as the same questions remain unanswered. Progress feels circular, so challenges become sharper and more forceful, often raised by select individuals who have simply reached their limit.

What looks like a sudden influx of negativity is often a result of accumulated fatigue and a sense that effort is being dedicated without impact.

Organisations aren’t losing talent or capability, but the willingness of their people. Progress slows through caution rather than resistance. That is what limbo looks like when it becomes personal.

3. Review and restructure create anticipation, and then silence

It often begins with good intent. A restructure is explored, a review commissioned, a new hire joins. The signal is that clarity and direction is forthcoming.

For a period, there is energy, speculation, excitement, and even a slither of hope. Then updates fizzle out, while timelines stretch out without explanation. No one explicitly states that nothing is happening, but no one is saying what is happening either.

While decisions are being evaluated and framed, leadership communication often shifts in one of two directions.

In some organisations, communication becomes sparse, inconsistent and fragmented, filtered through layers, or not shared at all. In others, communication increases but remains vague, with updates emphasising patience, inclusion, and trust in the process.

While the approach differs, the effect remains the same.

A lack of orientation or silence invites speculation, while reassurance without context invites scepticism. In the absence of clear signals, teams are left to interpret what is happening for themselves in the form of side conversations, second-guessing, and frustration. In both cases, trust erodes through a lack of usable information, and while the organisation keeps moving, team expectations are simply lowered.

Making the invisible visible again

None of these signals or signs appear overnight. They form gradually, often starting with good intentions from all sides. Most organisations will not even realise they are in this limbonic state until they have been there for quite some time.

What these signals share is neither poor leadership nor disengaged teams. It is a predictable response to uncertainty.

Nothing has gone wrong enough to force action, and nothing has been named clearly enough to restore direction. So teams adjust, wait and conserve effort to protect themselves from wasted energy.

We are not talking about the need to communicate either more or less. The first step out of this corporate limbo, is acknowledgement. Being transparent about what the organisation is waiting for. Stating what is known, what is not, and what will help to determine the next move.

As we’ve covered, progress does not always mean motion, yet waiting without recognition is not healthy either. It shapes behaviour, expectation, and trust, both positive and negative, and whether it is intended or not.

Sometimes the most effective leadership is not to move faster, but to be clear about why you are not.

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