The legitimacy ledger
Every public organisation keeps a second set of books. Not financial. Reputational. Most leaders never look at it until it is overdrawn.
Korrine Sky · 2026 · 5 min read
Legitimacy behaves like an account. Deposits are made when an organisation does something visible, costly and consistent with what it claims. Withdrawals happen every time it asks the public for belief, patience or money.
The trouble is that most organisations only track withdrawals. They plan campaigns, launches and announcements, all of which are asks, and they assume the balance is healthy because nobody has complained yet.
A ledger fixes that by making both sides visible. On one side, what have we actually done in the last year that a sceptical outsider would count as evidence. On the other, how many times have we asked the room to take us on trust.
When the ratio tips too far toward asks, the symptoms are recognisable: announcements land flat, partners hesitate, and a single bad news cycle does disproportionate damage because there is nothing banked against it.
The remedy is not more communication. It is deliberately scheduling deposits: commitments that cost something, are kept in public, and are boring enough to be believable.
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