What does it mean to let go? To surrender to the process? To get into the creative flow? How might letting go counterintuitively strengthen our leadership?

At our recent Design Executive Council Summit 2024, surrounded by a room full of some of the sharpest minds in design leadership, I felt a tension familiar to anyone in our line of work: the drive to control outcomes, to guarantee results, and to anchor everything in strategy. Executives and leaders in general have a natural orientation to control and orderliness. Drawing inspiration from a trip to Japan and my eastern roots, I felt there was something valuable about concepts like wabi-sabi for design leaders. In our agenda, I created art experiences to immerse our members in a centuries-old art form called suminagashi, “floating ink”—and with it, a powerful insight into our own approach to strategic design leadership.

Suminagashi is deceptively simple. Drop ink on water, let it float, allow the currents and your own faint gestures to shape it. There’s no correcting the ink’s course, no refinement, no going back. The end result is both a product of intention and of complete surrender. The beauty lies in what we allow the water to do, how the ink reveals patterns we couldn’t predict, blending intention with imperfection.

The art of suminagashi became a meaningful highlight point at our summit. As design executives, we’re wired to drive outcomes, shaping systems and strategies with a deliberate hand. But real leadership isn’t always about the end product we envision. Sometimes, the most impactful work emerges when we create space for what we can’t control—when we allow ideas and people to find their own patterns. For some, there was an initial hesitation to get immersed into a new exercise, but once they got into it, I saw smiles, laughter, and joy arise. We were amazed by the colors, patterns, and organic shapes emerging. It almost felt like we didn't even know we could create these works of art so beautifully as a group.

To me, this captures one of the attributes of strategic design leadership: embracing the discomfort of not having all the answers, pushing through the work, and allowing the creative process itself to reveal value. It’s about trusting the journey and finding the space to move forward even when things feel uncertain. In a room filled with Fortune 500 design executives, “letting go” became even more critical—a way to create room for vulnerability and open, authentic discussions. As members shared stories of unexpected turns, failed projects, or spontaneous ideas that sparked a movement, a common thread emerged: the most transformative work unfolds when we learn to not only lean into the creative process, but to trust ourselves that we will find a way.

I’m beginning to see the role of DXC and our council in the similar way. Our goal isn’t just to mold design leaders who follow a set path but to support a space where they can explore, take risks, and allow themselves to discover where they wish to go. We provide the platform for discovery and development, empowered by the amplifying value of a peer community to reduce loneliness and anxiety as we stretch ourselves in new ways. We are creating a mosaic of leadership stories, each with their own unique patinas. When I walked around the three tables of the room, I felt nothing but pride and joy to see design executives come back to discovering themselves through art. The demands of corporate life can be taxing, and I've found great meaning in providing creative spaces like this to recharge.

As a relatively new founder, I'm excited to continue to explore the suminagashi mindset. To let the ink float, to allow for the unexpected, and to find beauty in self-discovery. As leaders, ambiguity can be uncomfortable, but it’s also central to everything we do. By holding space for the unknown, we’re not losing control—we’re actually leading with greater vision and innovations to emerge. The ink will spread as it’s meant to.

Each swirl of ink created during our session reminded me that, like art, leadership often requires releasing control to make space for beauty and growth. At DXC, we have the privilege of witnessing design executives embrace both structure and freedom, vision and flexibility, guiding principles and creative exploration. This duality—intention coupled with openness—is precisely where transformative strategic design leadership is born. As much as we love to do it with intention, I believe that we can also do it with surrender.

As we continue to explore new paradigm shifts, let’s remember the beauty of suminagashi: that there’s power in surrender. By encouraging leaders to trust their intuition and each other, to experiment without fear of imperfection, and to allow ideas to emerge in unexpected ways, we’re laying the groundwork for a new era of leadership. One that, just like floating ink, resonates in ways we can’t always predict, but that ultimately leaves a lasting impression.

So if you have a pile of drafts, raw ideas, or unfinished work, I urge you to worry less, and get it out into the world.

Let’s float. Let’s lead. Let's get into the zone, and embrace the art of letting go.