679. Shift 9 — Trust Is The Work Now - Abby Falik
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This episode is part of 12 Shifts in 2026 for Social Impact.
Overview
Today's episode continues our 12-part series: 12 Shifts in 2026 for Social Impact. Over twelve episodes, we’re unpacking mindset + strategy shifts shaping the future of fundraising, leadership, and doing good in 2026. Explore the series at weareforgood.com/12shifts.
Shift 9 / Trust Is The Work Now
In today’s episode, Jon and Becky welcome back Abby Falik, Co-Founder & CEO of The Flight School, for a grounding and expansive conversation on why trust is no longer a byproduct of good leadership — it is the work.
As institutions fracture, technology accelerates, and certainty feels harder to come by, Abby invites nonprofit leaders to rethink trust as a core leadership practice rooted in authenticity, courage, and inner alignment. Together, they explore what it looks like to lead without false certainty, release performative control, and build organizations that are worthy of trust — from the inside out.
Abby shares wisdom from her lifelong work in leadership formation, her experience building trust-based systems, and the guiding principles behind The Flight School to help leaders move from fear to flourishing. This episode is both a call inward and a call forward for leaders navigating rapid change while trying to stay human.
Takeaways:
The speed of trust is infinite when relationships are trustworthy.
Trust is knowing you can let go of what you've known.
Courage is a contagion that inspires others to be brave.
We need to shift from fear to flourishing in our communities.
Organizations are at risk of losing trust if they prioritize performance over authenticity.
Practices that reconnect us to our inner selves are vital for maintaining trust.
Dive Deeper:
“The speed of trust is infinite. When the trust is there and when relations are trustworthy, there is no hesitation. The answers are clear.”
Episode Transcript
Download Full Episode Transcript Here
Episode Highlights:
The Importance of Trust in Leadership (02:30)
Trust as Core Work in a Fractured World (05:18)
Warning Signs of Losing Trust in Organizations (12:29)
Building Trust in Leadership (15:48)
Leading with Hope in Uncertain Times (18:13)
The Role of the Next Generation in Trust (21:51)
Abby’s One Good Thing (24:31)
Powerful Quotes
"Trust, we need new language, new metaphors, new practices everywhere around us. It has frayed, and it is the essential substrate that will help us reweave our relationships with ourselves, with each other, with our communities, with the broader world, with the natural world, with the world that is unseen, the world of spirit." - Abby Falik
"We need to find what is steady in the spinning world, what is constant, grounded, anchoring and true, even as the places where we have put our trust are proving to be unstable." - Abby Falik
"Risk taking and trust and not knowing, all of these things are entwined, and they are all muscles that we have to practice, and befriending our fear of the unknown is the path to freedom, ultimately." - Abby Falik
"Anything that values polish and performance over presence and authenticity is not trustworthy to me." - Abby Falik
"Modernity is built to tamper and protect us from our fears... we have decided that the only things that count are the things that we can actually count and measure, and all of these things are actually proxies or shortcuts for the actual thing underlying it that is more messy, less easy to pin down, less easy to name." - Abby Falik
"We need to call it as we see it. We put up so many layers of performance, but we are performing for each other." - Abby Falik
"If I could say one thing that helps me trust myself and helps me feel worthy of other people’s trust, it is about aligning with what is true and becoming more transparent to saying and doing the thing that aligns with that undercurrent of what is really trustworthy here." - Abby Falik
"Things need to break apart in order to break through. And what comes next is not yet determined. It is up to us, and we get to choose right now: are we going to choose to build with an engine of fear or an engine of love?" - Abby Falik
"Every courageous step is not just in the service of our own freedom, but it is helping to set other people free. It is helping to show them the way." - Abby Falik
"Modernity has us thinking that we have got to go it alone, carry the burden of the world on our own shoulders, but what does it look like to actually move in a way that is accompanied?" - Abby Falik
"The rising generation is so much less defended than we are. They are so much more sensitive to the truth, so much more likely to call the Emperor naked." - Abby Falik
"We need to be willing to be honest about what we have gotten wrong and humble and confident enough to learn from what they are here to tell us about what comes next." - Abby Falik
Abby’s One Good Thing: "My one good thing is the book that is never far from anywhere I happen to be... it is called Comfortable with Uncertainty. This is the one book I have read every day for the last decade... it is like instructions for the free fall. It is practices for remembering to trust what is innately good in us and in others."
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