Over the past few days, I’ve been considering this question: “When we say we’re stuck, whether it’s to ourselves or in meetings with peers, what exactly do we mean?”
Is it a behavior we can observe? A pattern of thought? A feeling?
Most likely, the answer is yes. But let’s begin by focusing on the sensory experience of being stuck.
What does being stuck feel like, individually or organizationally?
For me, it often feels like running in place—tired from all the effort but no closer to where I want to be. As individuals, it shows up when we keep circling the same thoughts or replaying the same “what ifs.” In organizations, it’s the endless meetings, reports, or strategy sessions that never seem to move the needle.
Being stuck isn’t just frustrating—it’s a whole state of mind and behavior. Emotionally, it can feel heavy or discouraging. Mentally, our thinking narrows or loops. Behaviorally, we either freeze or keep repeating what we’ve always done.
And while the experience is deeply personal, research across psychology, neuroscience, and leadership studies shows that individuals and organizations get stuck in surprisingly similar ways.
The good news? Stuckness can be named. And once named, it can be shifted.
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Why We Get Stuck
Mental Loops, AKA The Loop
Individually, we sometimes get caught in a thought–feeling cycle. You think, “I’ll never figure this out,” which makes you feel anxious or defeated. That feeling then reinforces the thought, and the loop keeps spinning.
Teams and companies do this too. A team might say, “We’ve tried everything—nothing else will work.” The belief creates frustration, which feeds back into the belief, and the cycle continues. These loops are exhausting, not because nothing happens, but because the same things happen again and again without progress.
What to do?: Loops begin to break when a new perspective interrupts the pattern—an outside voice, a different kind of question, or even just naming the loop itself.
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Stress and Narrow Vision, AKA The Fog
When stress is high, our brains shift into survival mode. The part of the brain that helps us plan and think creatively goes quiet, and we fixate on immediate problems. That’s why anxiety can make an individual freeze on decisions—or why a stressed organization keeps chasing small fires while losing sight of the bigger picture.
Leaders know this feeling well: the inbox explodes, deadlines loom, and suddenly your ability to think strategically disappears. Teams under stress show the same pattern—endless firefighting, little long-term progress.
What to do?: Fog begins to clear when we pause, step back, and create space to see the bigger picture again.
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Too Many Choices, AKA The Jam
Another kind of stuck comes when there are too many options. We analyze, compare, and overthink until it feels safer to make no decision at all. Personally, this looks like procrastination: scrolling job boards but never applying, rewriting a draft but never submitting.
Organizations experience this as “analysis paralysis”—one more meeting, one more spreadsheet, one more scenario to consider. The result: no decision, no momentum.
What to do?: Jams break when we decide what matters most right now—and have the courage to let other things wait.
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Habit and Comfort, AKA The Lock
People also get stuck in routines that once worked but no longer serve them. It feels comfortable, but comfort can quietly turn into inertia. An individual leader might keep using a management style that once inspired but now stifles their team.
Organizations do the same, holding onto past successes and repeating old patterns even when the world has changed. The familiar story—“This is how we’ve always done it”—becomes a lock that keeps out new ideas.
What to do?: Locks begin to loosen when we challenge assumptions and invite new stories about what’s possible.
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Lack of Energy, AKA The Drain
Sometimes the issue isn’t perspective or choice—it’s energy. A leader can know what needs to change and even want to change it, but burnout, fatigue, or disconnection from purpose drains the capacity to act.
Teams and organizations experience the same thing: people are stretched too thin to innovate or even to care. Meetings feel heavy, projects limp along, and change feels impossible because there’s simply no fuel left.
What to do?: Drains refill when we reconnect to purpose, celebrate progress, and make room for recovery.
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Limited Perspectives, AKA The Echo
The final kind of stuck shows up when the same voices dominate and no new input enters the system. Individuals experience this as an “echo chamber” in their own heads—relying on the same inner narrative or the same two friends for advice.
Organizations do it too: leadership hears the same opinions from the same people, while dissenting voices are silenced or never invited. Without fresh perspective, new solutions rarely emerge.
What to do?: Echoes quiet down when we widen the circle—listening to different voices, seeking challenge, and inviting dissent.
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The Common Faces of Stuck
These six patterns show up in everyday life, regardless of what we call them. What matters most is the recognition that stuckness has faces, and they’re familiar. Once we can say, “This is the Fog” or “We’re in a Jam,” the problem stops feeling like a fog of failure and becomes something we can name, notice, and address.
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What Individuals and Organizations Share
What strikes me is how similar stuck feels across levels:
• Emotionally: A leader might feel anxious or discouraged. An organization creates cultures of low morale or fear of risk.
• Mentally: People develop tunnel vision. Organizations drift into groupthink. In both cases, fresh ideas are shut out.
• Behaviorally: Leaders procrastinate, avoid, or overwork. Organizations double down on meetings, reports, or old strategies.
The core issue isn’t activity—it’s unproductive activity. Lots of motion, little progress.
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A Simple Starting Process
Getting unstuck deserves its own post (or three). But here’s a simple process I often use with myself and with leaders:
1. Name It. Which state are you in? Loop, Trap, Jam, Lock, Drain, or Echo?
2. Check Control. What part of this is within your influence, and what isn’t?
3. Picture Unstuck. What would progress look like? How would you know momentum was back?
4. Take One Step. Choose one small, doable action that proves change is possible.
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Why This Matters
Leaders often whisper, almost sheepishly, that they feel stuck—as if it’s a personal failure. Teams and organizations do the same, ignoring the symptoms until the costs are undeniable.
But stuckness isn’t failure. It’s part of growth. The danger isn’t getting stuck—it’s staying stuck.
When we recognize stuckness, name it, and take one small step, we begin to loosen its grip. That first movement, however small, reminds us that progress is possible.
And here’s the hopeful truth: the way out of one kind of stuck often helps with the others. New perspective interrupts a Loop and quiets an Echo. Letting go of perfection frees us from both Trap and Lock. Renewed energy clears a Drain and helps us tackle a Jam.
The paths out are connected, because the roots of stuckness are connected: perspective, belief, and motivation.
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Start Listening
Whether you’re an individual leader circling in your own thoughts, or an organization mired in endless meetings, being stuck is not the end of the story. It’s a signal. It’s telling you something about where you are and what needs to shift.
The invitation is to listen. To name it. To take a step.
Because stuckness, as uncomfortable as it is, is never final. It’s the moment just before change.