For years, organizations blamed performance dips and disengagement on “change fatigue.” But today, something more insidious is taking hold across teams. It’s not resistance to change, but exhaustion from not knowing what matters: uncertainty fatigue.

Our think tank gathered insights from more than 3,200 leaders and employees across industries between April and August 2025. One theme rose above all others: ambiguity, not workload, is what’s draining energy and focus.

These insights uncovered the invisible dynamics shaping today’s workplaces:

• Traction fuels energy: 67% of respondents said they gained more energy from seeing progress than from strategy decks.
• Speed beats scale: 49% said short, fast loops of action and learning re-energized them more than full planning cycles.
• Silence disengages: 53% said silence from leadership caused more disengagement than high workload.
• Agency is scarce: Only 31% felt permission to challenge decisions.
• Momentum is missed: Employees often piloted new ways of working, but leaders noticed only after energy faded.

When senior leaders understand these often-unspoken dynamics, they can respond with clarity instead of guesswork. Here are some actionable insights to help leaders respond to uncertainty fatigue.

Read on at FORBES.COM