by Katherine Tyler Scott
- 10 July 2026
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For over half a century I have had the privilege of working with thousands of individuals, institutions, and communities. Although their requests for assistance were broad ranging and descriptive of their situation, one ultimate question was critical in every case — Why?
In the diagnostic phase of understanding a client’s current challenge, questions center on gathering facts from records and interviews. Once that data is obtained, the consultant asks deeper-level questions that solicit the root causes of the surface issues. Why is communication difficult? Why do people feel stuck? Why is there high anxiety? Why are people in a state of chronic confusion? Why is there conflict in relationships? These are a few examples of how to elicit more information and a greater understanding of issues, whether individual, organizational, or communal.
The three-letter word why is an effective key to unlocking complex-system dynamics. From the persistent questioning of toddlers to the curious inquiries of mature adults, the human quest to understand beyond the obvious is universal and opens the door to a deeper, invisible, often unconscious level of knowledge and wisdom. It provides insight and clarity and reveals the inviolate values and fundamental beliefs that shape the contours and content of individual and organizational character.
At the individual level, this quest is the practice of inner work — the work of honest, open self-examination, self-reflection, and self-development — and a commitment to continual psychological and emotional growth. It is the scaffolding for constructing an ethical and honorable life, the structure of authenticity, and a reminder that you cannot lead others beyond where you have gone. This truth is powerfully affirmed in the work of notable academics and practitioners such as William Bridges, Ronald Heifetz, Parker Palmer, and Edwin Friedman. Friedman book, A Failure of Nerve, describes the integral connectivity between a system and the leader. It offers the most graphic account of the need for leaders to remain consistent, clear, and congruent in anxious systems — the state of self-differentiation.
The ability to do this is a barometer of a leader’s psychological and emotional health, and a solid indicator of an organization’s capacity to exercise the adaptive leadership muscle. Self-differentiation is the essence of inner work — the leader’s commitment to asking why questions of themselves first, and then of others. This holds true for organizational and community systems as well: leaders and followers who embrace this practice of questioning are best equipped to help complex systems tackle their most challenging problems. Inner work poses, and then dives deeply into, the why questions — why you behave the way you do, why and for what purpose you exist, why individual values and actions matter, why you are drawn to certain issues. The answers reveal content, character, integrity, and trustworthiness.
We have learned how important inner work is in motivating people to embrace their strengths and weaknesses, let go of barriers to change, and accept the need to move into uncertain times. This deeper work of leadership extracts what is important to hold onto now, what must be carried forward, and clarifies what must be left to the past. There is a strong cultural tendency to see only the tip of the iceberg of a problem — the “Titanic” perception of reality that leads to limited information and, ultimately, faulty decisions or disaster. Leaders of change must go beyond the known into the unknown, doing the deeper inner work that fuels their resolve to manage resistance and the inevitable barriers to change.
Leaders are instruments of change entrusted with the current and future wellbeing of their communities.
Those of us whose vocation is leadership and/or leadership development have a why that is important to acknowledge and articulate for ourselves, and that is important to share with those with whom we work. I was the second of twins born to a mother who was an only child and a father who had only one other sibling. My narrative began with an awareness of being connected to a sister, Irma. I have always had an awareness of being separate while also being a “we.” I understood the concept of both/and early on. Being a twin prepared me for a kind of dual (sometimes expansive) consciousness — an ability to be self-aware while simultaneously cognizant of the presence and importance of another individual. The addition of six more siblings expanded my awareness of system dynamics long before I completed graduate school and years of work in clinical settings.
Decades of education and practice in organizational development, leadership education, and systems change have reinforced my early belief in the universal yearning we have to be all we are meant to be. I believe that when we work together in ways that recognize and genuinely value the other, we cultivate higher-functioning groups, create more humane and generative institutions, launch constructive change initiatives, and build a solid foundation from which we can all be courageously and fully ourselves.
My early history reflects a prescient awareness of the impact of holding the tension between opposites — balancing independence and interdependence, connection and separation, inner work and outer work, technical and adaptive skills, and self-differentiation within a system in ways that contribute to the health of the larger whole.
To paraphrase theologian Frederick Buechner, calling is the place where the world’s deep need and our deep joy meet. It is like a mandorla in organizational life, where individual purpose and organizational mission overlap, creating the space where transformational change happens and where the struggle to live up to our highest ideals meets with success. Within this space we are reminded of the powerful relationship between outer and inner work, between technical and adaptive skills. The integrated work of leadership holds and transforms these tensions and becomes the pathway to transformational change. Otherwise, the outcome of our labors is cosmetic — a façade of progress.
Leaders are instruments of change entrusted with the current and future wellbeing of their communities. They must invest in the skills that enable them to hold their community in trust. The foundation for that responsibility is the self-knowledge developed from questions that lead to a knowledge of why — why we care, why we are fearless, why we are unrelenting, why we are committed.
I am called to the integrated work of leadership because it engages leaders in discovering and identifying the individual and collective gifts that contribute to ethical systems of constructive accomplishment. It cultivates a culture in which everyone feels they belong, are respected and valued, and are treated with dignity.
Whether as a clinician, organizational consultant, or community volunteer/leader, I remain committed to enabling individuals, organizations, and communities to excavate and liberate these values, and to use their gifts to lead constructive change in their vision of the world.
