I wouldn’t start with Parliament.
I would start with the boardroom.
If I had the power to change one law, it wouldn’t be written in statute. It would be the implied corporate law that says:
“Survive by alignment. Rise by silence. Stay safe by being smaller than the insecurity above you.”
It’s the unwritten rule that politicking is strategy.
That closing ranks protects “the business.”
That the high performer who asks uncomfortable questions must be “managed.”
We laugh at cancel culture on social media, but inside corporations scapegoating is often a performance management tool. Gaslighting is dressed up as “feedback.” Narcissism hides behind passive-aggressive emails and withheld advocacy.
There is nothing more destabilising than reporting to an insecure leader who will not advocate for you—not because you are incapable, but because you are uncontrollable.
Some people are made examples of. Not because they failed.
But because they cannot be folded into fear.
And fear, in many corporate cultures, is currency.
In my work across post-merger integrations and change initiatives, I have seen it repeatedly: culture eats strategy for breakfast. But culture only nourishes growth when people are not living in quiet survival mode.
When integration becomes consolidation of power rather than alignment of purpose.
When “fit” becomes code for compliance.
When HR—often structurally designed to protect the company from liability—cannot protect the employee who represents necessary disruption.
We talk about governance frameworks.
We draft beautiful codes of ethics.
We commission culture audits.
But the real law in many organisations is still this:
Protect the hierarchy. Contain the truth. Reward loyalty over courage.
That’s the law I would repeal.
If I could change one rule, it would be this:
Advocacy for your people would be mandatory, not optional.
Leaders would be measured not by how well they protect themselves, but by how safely their teams can challenge them.
Promotion would require demonstrated sponsorship of others—not silent tolerance.
Performance reviews would include psychological safety metrics with real consequence.
And retaliation disguised as “strategic restructuring” would be what it actually is: misconduct.
Subtle? Perhaps not. Necessary? Absolutely.
Here is the harder truth though:
Implied laws exist because we uphold them.
We participate in silence.
We normalise dysfunction.
We tell ourselves it’s just how things are.
But it all starts small. It starts at home. It starts in the decision to not gaslight yourself about what you are seeing. To not shrink to stay palatable. To not trade your full life for a survival contract.
I have been in rooms where pivot was forced upon me.
Where the system quietly signalled, “You do not belong in this version of the story.”
And yet—what felt like punishment became liberation.
Because the real law I now live by is this:
A career should not be your sentence.
We need to be truest to ourselves—even when that truth costs proximity to power. Especially then.
Change the implied law.
Start with how you lead.
Start with how you protect others.
Start with how you refuse to participate in fear.
Because a life lived in quiet compliance is not stability.
It is simply punishment dressed up as success.
Sarala Life — Life in Chapters: Careers, Canines, Cabernet & Courage 
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