A blank slate

Leadership transitions are usually shaped by ghosts.If your predecessor was beloved, you enter a community gently grieving what was. If there was turmoil, you step onto a stage heavy with hope that you’ll be the one to pick up the pieces. Most of the time, it’s a delicate, complicated mix of both.

My current transition feels entirely different. Last year, no one occupied this role. No one sat in the office chair. No one left behind a stack of color-coded handovers or a well-worn routine. Instead of stepping into someone else’s shoes, I am stepping into a void—a blank canvas, a clean slate, tabula rasa.

As a systems designer, the idea of building from scratch should feel like a dream. But honestly, there’s something deeply unsettling about an empty canvas. Without a blueprint, everything can be designed—which also means there are no initial constraints to lean on, no baseline measure of what is truly needed.

Right now, the silence is loud. With most Moroccans in my area still on summer holidays, my new neighborhood is quiet, the school campus is empty before the students return, and I’m standing in the center of it all. There is an expectation—both internal and external—to quickly find the balance of elements that will make this place feel like home and this role feel like second nature. It’s a heavy task when you’re simultaneously navigating jet lag, cultural recalibration, and high-stakes onboarding.

When we face a blank page, the instinct is often to rush to fill it with noise, structure, and quick wins just to ease the discomfort of the empty space. But real design work requires us to sit in the quiet first. To listen to the silence before deciding what needs to be built.

So this week, I’m giving myself permission to hold space for the tabula rasa. To move slowly through the quiet halls, to let the jet lag clear, and to trust that the blueprint doesn’t need to be drawn in a day—it will reveal itself one observation at a time.

Have you ever found yourself stepping into a complete blank canvas in your life or career? How did you navigate the space before the blueprint appeared?