Last week, I wrapped up the inaugural Forward Action Leadership Lab (F.A.L.L.). Over the course of two weeks, a hand-selected cohort of 20 established and emerging leaders explored themes in service of cultivating alignment and agency in themselves and those they lead. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing some of the F.A.L.L. learnings, and today I want to start with the one that is sticking with me most powerfully this week.
The power of noticing.
Have you ever noticed (pun intended) how simply noticing can change the game?
Scientists call this the “observer effect”, the phenomenon where the act of observing a system changes that system.
It’s why a kid behaves differently when they know a parent is watching, the problematic team member suddenly becomes charming when the boss is in the room, or our eating improves when we’re tracking macros.
The power of noticing was present in spades during the F.A.L.L. program.
Each day, participants were introduced to the day’s topic and given the chance to reflect on (or notice) how that theme was already showing up in their life and how they wanted to show up in light of what they were learning.
And the impact was powerful.
For example, when a leader noticed what influenced them to show up at work from a place of reactivity (vs creativity), they also began to proactively take action to care for themselves in a way that supported showing up well when it mattered.
Or the leader who, in noticing what feedback they wanted to share with a team member, realized that the situation was actually an opportunity to realign with their colleague and move forward collaboratively.
Or when the leader came to notice the differing values that contributed to the contentious discussion, and then by naming the values in tension was able to creatively work with their teammate to create a solution that worked for both.
Where do you see this in your own leadership?
Where do you see the impact of simply taking the time to stop and NOTICE what’s present and active?
What do you want to spend time noticing?
November 5, 2026
About the author:
Christina Von Stroh is a leadership coach who helps her clients become wildly successful by applying iterative software development practices to achieve their dreams. Want to work with Christina to help you iterate towards the person you’re becoming?
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