First up what’s a liminal mindset? I came across this article which explains it well. According to neuroscientist Anne-Laure Cunff, liminal spaces are those uncertain disorienting ‘in-between’ stages of life that can potentially open up powerful opportunities for growth. They can heighten learning, creativity, self-discovery and resilience by pushing the brain beyond routine patterns. The key is flipping from anxiety to curiosity.
The word liminal comes from a Latin root that means threshold or doorway. A “threshold” is a boundary that marks a point of transition between one state and another.
Ok, now that we know what it is how does that apply to the crucial questions around driving innovation and transformation as a team leader? Here’s my take as someone who has learnt to trust this liminal mindset to drive things forward.
Why Transformation Requires Liminal Thinking
Every leader who has spearheaded transformation knows that uncomfortable space between the old way of working and the new vision, where nothing feels solid and everything seems to be in flux. Most leaders try to minimize this discomfort, rushing through it as quickly as possible and by treating transformation as a linear journey from Point A to Point B. They create detailed roadmaps, set milestones, and try to maintain control throughout. But what if the key to successful transformation, the kind that fundamentally reshapes how an organization operates, isn't avoiding the liminal space—but learning to lead from within it?
Research backs this up. A 2021 McKinsey study found that only 26% of organizational transformations succeed — but those that do are marked by leaders who acknowledge uncertainty, build trust, and engage teams in co-creating new ways of working (McKinsey, 2021).
The Neuroscience of Uncertainty
When we enter liminal states, our brains react in predictable ways:
- The amygdala (the brain’s alarm system) interprets ambiguity as danger, driving people to cling to the familiar.
- The anterior cingulate cortex detects conflict and over-fires during uncertainty, making transformation mentally exhausting.
This explains why change feels so uncomfortable — and why teams naturally resist it.
But here's what separates transformational leaders from merely competent managers: they understand that this discomfort isn't a bug in the system—it's the feature that makes genuine change possible.
Your role as a leader is to normalize the discomfort, and guide people to stay curious long enough for new patterns to form.
Three Core Capacities of Liminal Leadership
1. Allowing Ambiguity
Most leaders feel pressure to have all the answers, especially during times of change. But liminal leadership requires a different approach: the ability to hold space for uncertainty without rushing to premature clarity. This doesn't mean being directionless. It means being clear about values and intent but flexible about methods and outcomes. When leaders can model comfort with ambiguity, they give permission for teams to tolerate the uncertainty long enough for genuine insight to emerge.
2. Reframing Beliefs and Mental Models
Underpinning processes and structures are values and beliefs. At the heart of liminal thinking is addressing and changing these beliefs.
A liminal leader actively surfaces and questions the assumptions that have shaped the organization. They ask: What beliefs created our current reality? Which of these beliefs still serve us, and which have become constraints? What new beliefs do we need to adopt to create the future we envision? This requires psychological safety and genuine curiosity to examine beliefs that may have once been sacred cows.
3. Making Decisions in the Void
Perhaps the most challenging aspect of liminal leadership is making consequential decisions without complete information or guaranteed outcomes.
Liminal leaders develop a different relationship with decision-making. They:
- Make smaller, reversible decisions more frequently rather than big, irreversible ones to allow for learning and course correction.
- Use decisions as experiments that generate information rather than as commitments that must be defended.
- Balance confidence with humility, communicating direction while remaining open to being wrong.
- Create decision-making frameworks based on principles rather than rigid rules, allowing teams to make aligned decisions even in new situations.
The key insight is that transformation with a liminal approach, involves fluid decisions and new ways of operating till you find answers that work.
Decisions. Culture. Growth. Impact.
Decisions
In Western business, ambiguity is seen as something to “solve.” Decisions are praised for speed and clarity. In many Asian contexts, ambiguity is held longer — as a way to test quietly, respect hierarchy, or keep options open.
Leaders need to flex between these modes: act decisively when clarity exists, but also hold space for ambiguity when new possibilities are still emerging.
Culture
Cultural beliefs shape resistance. In collectivist contexts, fear of breaking harmony stalls change. In individualist contexts, skepticism (“prove it first”) dominates.
Liminal leadership means engaging with these belief systems, not bulldozing through them.
Growth
Research from Deloitte shows that organizations that experiment during transformation — using pilots and sandboxes — are 2.5 times more likely to achieve lasting change.
Singapore’s fintech sector is a great example: the regulator created “sandbox” environments for experimentation. This liminal space encouraged innovation safely — and reshaped the industry.
Impact
Leaders who provide clarity, demonstrate empathy, and maintain open communication can enhance trust among employees, even amidst turbulence.
During Covid, organizations across Australia and New Zealand, that embraced uncertainty and viewed disruption as a transitional phase—rather than an insurmountable obstacle—were more resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic.
What Success Actually Looks Like
Success in liminal leadership means:
- Teams making decisions without you because they understand principles, not just procedures
- Productive conflict as people challenge assumptions instead of defending positions
- Experiments replacing excuses - "Let's try this and see" becomes the default response
- Stories spreading about new ways of working that actually worked
- You changing too - if you're the same leader at the end, you weren't really in the threshold
One global life sciences company trained 6,000 leaders in liminal practices. They expanded spans of control, empowered teams to make decisions, and saw leaders shift from directors to coaches. The result? Teams cut regulatory submission time in half and replicated successes across therapeutic areas.
The Bottom Line
The question isn't whether your organization will face liminal spaces during transformation—it will. The question is whether you'll have the courage to lead from within them, because that's where the real transformation happens. Organizations that integrate liminal thinking into their transformation strategies can unlock innovation and adaptability, enabling them to navigate uncertainty more effectively and achieve sustainable growth.
How to Start Leading from the Threshold: A Practical Playbook
Begin with a short ritual to normalize uncertainty. At the start of projects, invite the team to articulate what is unknown and what assumptions they're holding. Name the discomfort aloud — this reduces the amygdala's charge and creates psychological safety for exploration.
Create micro-experiments. Design small, time-boxed pilots that test specific hypotheses (not vague "innovation" initiatives). Treat each pilot as an experiment with clear metrics, exit criteria, and a learning review. This converts fear of failure into a structured learning loop.
Shift decision rights along principle-based guardrails. Define 3–5 guiding principles that reflect your desired future state (e.g., "Customer outcomes over internal convenience"). Empower teams to make decisions within those principles and require escalation only when a principle conflicts. This speeds learning without sacrificing alignment.
Institutionalize sensemaking rituals. Weekly or biweekly sensemaking sessions help teams process new information together: What surprised us? What patterns are emerging? What should we double down on or abandon? These rituals transform ambiguity into collective intelligence.
Surface and test core beliefs. Run belief-mapping workshops where teams trace the origin of current practices back to underlying assumptions. For each belief, ask: Is it still true? What would happen if the opposite were true? Pilot the opposite where safe to see if change unlocks new value.
Train leaders in "curiosity muscles." Include coaching on asking generative questions (What if…? How might we…?) and on modeling not-knowing. Leaders who can demonstrate humble inquiry reduce defensive behaviors and encourage experimentation.
Use sandboxes and safe-to-fail environments. Where regulatory or reputational risk is high, create controlled sandboxes (like Singapore's fintech model) to surface learnings without endangering core operations. These spaces are liminal by design and accelerate safe innovation.
Measure learning, not just output. Standard transformation KPIs (on-time, on-budget) miss the point in liminal phases. Track experiments run, hypotheses validated, learning velocity, and decisions devolved to teams. Celebrate learning milestones publicly.
A short checklist leaders can use today:
- Run a one-hour "unknowns and assumptions" kickoff for your next initiative.
- Authorize a single reversible experiment with clear success/failure criteria.
- Publish 3 guiding principles to orient team decisions.
- Schedule a recurring sensemaking session for the project lifecycle.
- Share one personal leadership learning in a team forum this month.
Common pitfalls to avoid:
Rushing to certainty. Forcing a premature plan kills creative discovery and reinforces old models.
Treating experiments as perfunctory. If pilots have no budget, visibility, or decision intent, they become theater, not learning.
Holding leaders harmless from change. If leaders aren't visibly changing, teams will conclude the transformation is cosmetic.
Final thought
Transformation is messy by design. The liminal mindset doesn’t remove mess — it makes the mess productive. When leaders hold ambiguity with curiosity, reframe beliefs deliberately, and create disciplined experiments, liminal spaces become the crucible of innovation rather than the source of paralysis. If you’re ready to practice leading from the threshold, try one play from the checklist this week and observe what changes. Want more practical frameworks and case studies on liminal leadership and transformation? Subscribe to get monthly tools, templates, and real-world examples.