A new year always brings a mix of hope and questions. What will this year hold? What will change? What will remain the same?
These questions apply to St Luke’s as a charity as much as they are also deeply personal.
And if Advent taught us anything, it is that waiting is not wasted time; it is a discipline of humility, a posture of openness to what we do not yet know or see.
Over Advent, as well as taking a break, I reflected on my first six months in role. In my reading two concepts came into view that I lingered on (and recently shared in Friday Mailing): negative capability and pluralistic ignorance. At first glance, they sound technical, but they speak to something profoundly practical for leadership and wellbeing.
Negative capability, as recently described by Robert French in the Journal of Organizational Management, is the ability to tolerate the pain and confusion of not knowing. It is about resisting the urge to rush to certainty, and instead creating environments where uncertainty is normalised rather than pathologised. In other words, it is okay not to have all the answers. In fact, it is essential. When we lead from a place of incomplete knowledge, we model humility and invite collaboration. That feels like a good disposition to carry into 2026.
"A dynamic concept of role, appropriate to conditions of organizational change, demands a mature negative capability because managing in such conditions relies heavily on the capacity to live with uncertainty and yet still to act." Robert French,
But humility alone is not enough. This is where pluralistic ignorance comes in. Research by Woiczyk, Hosseini & Le Mens reminds us that perceived norms are shaped less by what most people believe and more by what we repeatedly see. Our memories privilege frequent behaviours, especially those of visible individuals. So even if most people value humility, if it is rarely visible, it risks fading into the background. Culture, then, is not just what we write in policies or say in statements: it is what we see, day after day.
This matters for wellbeing. If we want a culture where care, openness, and humility thrive, these behaviours must be visible. They must be amplified. Not only by those in positional leadership, but across the whole Church. Culture is not an abstract ideal; it is a pattern of behaviours repeatedly seen and normalised.
So, as we begin this year, I want to offer three reflections:
- Visibility matters: What we amplify shapes what feels normal. Let’s make sure the behaviours we value – compassion, integrity and collaboration – are not only spoken about but seen in action.
- Culture is behaviour: Policies and statements matter, but they only take root when embodied in daily practice.
- Humility is strength: Leading from a place of incompleteness is not weakness; it creates psychological safety and invites shared learning.
This week, we will be interviewing for our new Associate Director, a significant appointment for St Luke’s. I would be grateful if you would join us in prayer for discernment: that we may listen well, seek wisdom, and choose in a way that reflects our values and serves our mission.
And beyond this appointment, I invite you to consider: What behaviours will we amplify this year? How can we make wellbeing visible in our shared life? These are not just questions for those of us exercising leadership roles; they are for all of us. Because culture is not created by statements it is created by what we do, together.