Leaving the Comfort Zone: Writing for a Different Audience
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By JR Grigsby
I recently had an article published in Training Industry Magazine, and this one felt different from the kinds of writing I am used to doing.
Much of my writing has lived in creative nonfiction history through my books, or in scholarly work where every claim is carefully supported, every idea is traced to its source, and the writer’s job is often to show the path of the thinking as much as the thinking itself. That kind of writing matters. It builds discipline, precision and intellectual honesty.
But professional writing asks for something slightly different.
It asks what you have seen, what you have learned and what may be useful to others who are trying to solve real problems in real organizations. In other words, it asks the writer to step into the space many of us call “pracademic” work, where research, practice and lived professional experience meet.
My article focuses on strategic fatigue in learning and development, or what can happen when organizations launch more initiatives than people can realistically absorb, apply and sustain. It is a professional issue, but it is also a very human one. Most people, regardless of their field, know what it feels like to have too much coming at them too quickly and not enough space to turn activity into progress.
I first encountered the language of fatigue in a military context, where readiness depends on recognizing the limits of human endurance, attention and recovery. The more I thought about it, the more I saw a parallel in organizational life. Many organizations are depleting their own capacity, not always through crisis or necessity, but through the steady accumulation of good ideas, urgent requests and overlapping implementation plans.
AI has only intensified that pattern. Every idea can now produce a product, a workflow, a course, a tool or an implementation plan faster than people can always evaluate, absorb or apply it.
It is too much.
I have been in the workforce for decades, and I increasingly see portfolios that look ambitious on paper but unattainable with the people, time and attention available to carry them out. So, what is the answer?
In 2025, Graham Kenny wrote in Harvard Business Review about strategy fatigue and the organizational strain caused by too many initiatives, shifting priorities and unclear evaluation before new priorities are pursued. That argument connected closely with what I was seeing in learning and development, where the issue is not simply whether each initiative has value, but whether the full portfolio can realistically be absorbed and sustained.
The idea of strategic restraint is not simply about slowing down. In management literature, Hao Ma describes strategic restraint in innovation as a deliberate choice to refrain when action would deplete resources, weaken fit or undermine long-term value. Applied to learning and development, the same logic suggests that not every valuable learning idea should become immediate work.
To me, one thing was clear: leaders need to recognize fatigue early and know when restraint is not hesitation, but strategy.
Writing through the practitioner lens required me to think differently. Instead of asking, “Have I cited every influence behind this idea?” I had to ask, “Have I explained this clearly enough that someone can recognize the problem and do something useful with it?”
Professional publications create a different kind of bridge. They take lessons from work, research and experience and place them where people can actually use them.
For me, this publication represents a small step into a space where leadership, research and practice meet in a different medium. It is not a departure from scholarly thinking. It is another way to translate it.
Notes/citations:
Arnaud Rabat et al., “Fatigue and Management of Warfighter Mental Endurance,” BMJ Military Health 171, no. 5 (2025): 447–451, https://doi.org/10.1136/military-2025-002963.
Kenny, Graham. “How to Prevent Strategy Fatigue.” Harvard Business Review, April 4, 2025. https://hbr.org/2025/04/how-to-prevent-strategy-fatigue.
Hao Ma, “When to Refrain from Innovation?” Organizational Dynamics 55, no. 2 (June 2026): 101235, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2026.101235.
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