Certainty Detox
Curiosity Questions for Volatile Weeks
If you’ve ever watched Friends, you probably remember the scene where Ross is trying to move a sofa up a narrow stairwell and keeps yelling, “Pivot! Pivot! PIVOT!”
Some weeks, as a founder or executive, feel exactly like that.
Not because you’re doing it wrong, but because volatility has become the environment. The market shifts. A key hire quits. A client pauses spend. A vendor breaks. A storm hits (literal or metaphorical). And suddenly you’re wedging your strategy into a stairwell that was never designed for the load you’re carrying.
Here’s the hard truth most leaders resist:
There is no “back to normal.”
And chasing certainty in an uncertain season is like trying to force that couch around the corner. All you get is more strain, more shouting, more stuck.
The Certainty Trap (and why it drains leaders)
When volatility spikes, many leaders default to:
Over-controlling
Over-explaining
Over-planning
Waiting for “one more data point” before acting
Those moves can look responsible on the outside, but internally they often come from a nervous system that’s trying to self-protect.
In Navigating the Deep End, I talk about the moment when old rules—control, effort, waiting for certainty—stop working. The leaders who thrive aren’t the ones who magically eliminate uncertainty.
They’re the ones who learn to relate to uncertainty differently.
They trade certainty-seeking for curiosity.
Certainty Detox: a leadership practice for volatile weeks
A “certainty detox” doesn’t mean you stop making decisions.
It means you stop demanding guarantees before you move.
Curiosity is not soft. It’s strategic.
Curiosity creates options. Curiosity reveals leverage. Curiosity helps you lead with presence instead of panic.
And most importantly: curiosity gives your team permission to think.
Curiosity Questions to ask when everything is pivoting
When you feel the urge to force the couch pause and ask better questions.
Here are a few of my go-to curiosity questions from Navigating the Deep End that help leaders create traction in volatile weeks:
What wants to emerge through this crisis?When the path is unclear, this question shifts you from “How do I restore what was?” to “What is trying to be built now?”
What if the chaos is an invitation, not a catastrophe?This doesn’t minimize impact. It widens the frame—so you can see opportunity without bypassing reality.
What can we build now that we couldn’t have built before?Volatility breaks old constraints. This question helps you identify the new capabilities, markets, or relationships that are suddenly possible.
What new skills, values, or relationships have emerged from this experience?If you’re only measuring loss, you’ll miss growth. This question helps you capture the assets that disruption creates.
How can we serve at a higher level, not in spite of what we’ve endured, but because of it?This is the question that turns survival mode into leadership.
How to use these questions (without turning them into a poster)
If you want this to work in real life, try this 10-minute protocol during volatile weeks:
Name the pivot (one sentence): What changed?
Choose one curiosity question from the list above.
Generate three answers:
One practical/operational answer
One relational/team answer
One bold/creative answer
Pick one next step you can execute in 24–48 hours.
This keeps you moving without pretending you can predict the future.
The point isn’t to stop pivoting
The point is to stop pivoting from panic.
Because when you lead from urgency and fear, you narrow your options.
When you lead from curiosity, you expand them.
And that’s how resilient leadership is built: not by returning to normal, but by becoming the leader who can navigate what’s real.
Pre-order Navigating the Deep End
If you’re leading through constant pivots and you want a grounded, practical framework for turning crisis into clarity, connection, and momentum—my book Navigating the Deep End: Resilient Leadership in a Volatile World (GracePoint) releases 6/1/26.
Pre-order here: https://www.emmachurchman.com/resilient
If you want, reply with the word PIVOT and tell me what kind of volatility you’re navigating right now—I’ll suggest one curiosity question to start with.