Zeitgeist is often used to describe the mood of the moment these days.
Hegel, however meant something more demanding: the inner logic of a time — how power, meaning, and possibility reorganize while history is still unfolding.
From what I see, the real issue right now is not lack of intelligence, vision, or ambition. It is lack of tuning.
We are operating in what experts define as a “fluid international order”. Reference points shift. Old certainties no longer hold, new ones aren’t stable yet. In that context, the reflex to decide fast is understandable — and often costly.
What’s missing in many rooms is not strategy. It’s the ability to sense where things are slightly out of tune — in oneself, in the room, in the system — and adjust beforeacting.
Not balance. Balance freezes. Not confidence. Confidence can be blind.
Tuning requires grounding first. Flow without grounding is just adrenaline. Grounding is what makes judgment reliable.
If there is one power skill worth cultivating seriously this year, this might be it.
So here’s the only question that matters right now: Where do I need to tune — and what might change if I actually did?
Not louder. Better tuned.
P.S. I have chosen a picture from the Vienna New Year’s Concert, conducted this year by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
A quiet masterclass in reading the Zeitgeist: honoring tradition without freezing it, sensing the moment without chasing it. That’s tuning at scale. Bravo, Maestro.