Ivar Raav

If it were, every high-performing leader would be burned out. Burnout is more often a long-term inner conflict – a slow separation from yourself. For example:– You say yes when something in you says no.– You speak about strategy while your body tightens.– You lead change while quietly resisting it inside. For a while, performance […]

Real solutions don’t just fix systems, but they often threaten identity. A resolved problem means less control, fewer meetings, fewer interventions and less reason for staying in the middle. What does this look like in practice?• the same topics returning to leadership meetings year after year• constant “improvement projects” without real ownership transfer• leaders staying

Burnout, low engagement, recurring conflicts, declining performance are not isolated issues to be fixed with another tool, process or initiative. They usually point to deeper causes left untouched. Modern leadership focuses on symptom management: new frameworks, trainings, projects. Good intentions of course, but you cannot solve the problems on the level they arise. Leadership doesn’t

At a basic level the system has been designed in a way that creates the need for a strategy just to survive the madness it produces. This is not transformation. It’s a band-aid on a wound that actually needs stitches without questioning the cause what made the wound. It leaves really often the root cause

Unresolved fear, the need for approval, and avoidance don’t disappear at work, but they scale. Organizations don’t mirror strategies, but they mirror the inner state of those in power. That’s why another strategy day rarely helps. What helps is taking time for honest, deep reflection to face inner goals, fears, and resistance. This is often

It’s about a management model that keeps people in permanent survival mode. Wellbeing programs don’t fix a broken system. They just help people tolerate it a little longer. Organizations change only when leaders stop calling dysfunction “normal”and find the courage to question a model that moves from one survival crisis to the next. If this

I believe that many people who are involved in safety rules have been confronted with the situation that we talk and talk, but nothing changes. So yesterday, in my presentation at the Safety and Health at Work Meeting 2026, I took this as the theme – where does self-destructive behaviour come from. 👉 People don’t

I’m invited to work in organisations on quite similar topics – trust and accountability in the leadership team, collaboration, values, governance, etc. And more often than not, the conversation will lead to the fact that the topic being discussed is not the real “topic”. For example, if we are talking about trust, the issue is

Those of you who have followed me for a long time will know that I am increasingly questioning practices that have been in place for many years, because of the need to practice. Because the more I see organisations, the clearer it becomes that many of the classic management practices no longer work, even though

In a previous post, I wrote about why today’s way of managing is increasingly exhausting people and no longer works. I wrote about why the problem is no longer with the individual, but with the pattern. Inevitably, the question arises: what to do when the system doesn’t work? In practice, there are three options. 1️⃣