The Archeology of Leadership
Trium's newest Principal, Trice Kabundi, on finding meaning and context within organizations
In the rush of modern business, the most vital truths are often buried beneath the surface. Unearthing them requires a specific kind of patience: the willingness to look beyond daily operations and reveal the deeper patterns, stories, and individuals that truly drive a system. Those who do this effectively wield a quiet clarity, bringing to light the opportunity to live and work in a more meaningful way.
We are delighted to welcome our newest Principal, Trice Kabundi, to Trium. Trice brings a unique ability to see the individual within the system, treating leadership not merely as a set of behaviors, but as an enduring legacy. Here, she discusses the path that led her to Trium and the important work she has come to do.
Why Trium, and why now?
In September 2024, I was on a plane coming back from facilitating a marathon week-long offsite in Uganda with a Fintech CEO and his team. Over the course of the week, we moved between strategy sessions and the quieter, harder conversations underneath them. You could feel the team find its way into alignment in real time.
At 35,000 feet, as I was reflecting on their business challenges and the vulnerability the team embodied during our time together, I had an overwhelming realization: this is my life’s work.
I realized I wanted to invest fully in this type of deep, connected work at the intersection of organizational systems and the people that work within them, and I wanted to do it alongside a community of practitioners committed to that same depth of work. For many months, I was looking for a place where I could examine the artifacts of a culture: those hidden beliefs and patterns that shape an organization, and work with them as the core offering.
Finding Trium was a manifestation of the conversation I had with myself on that plane. It was an opportunity to move from being an expert in a silo to being part of a collective that lives and breathes this work. I view myself as an integrator who provides coherence, context, and alignment to systems that might feel fragmented to those inside them.
When was the first time you realized that this type of deep, intentional work was your calling?
When I was an undergraduate student in Virginia, I helped host a global Indigenous rights conference. Because I speak French, I was asked to serve as the guide for a delegation of indigenous leaders traveling from Central Africa. I spent the entire week by their side, translating not just their words, but their world, to the various stakeholders at the conference.
Toward the end of the week, I helped present a set of insights the delegations had about the issues being discussed. In that moment, I became a voice for them. I was a trusted partner who could take their unique context and worldview and give it the space and time to integrate into a much larger, global system. That week became a professional launchpad for me: it laid the foundation for my early work at the Aspen Institute, writing speeches at the African Union, and later impact investment roles in emerging markets. I realized then that I was drawn to roles where I could surface what was “unseen” into something actionable and understood.
Your international experience is a foundational part of your practice. How has that shaped your lens?
I was born in the U.S., but I grew up in Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Senegal. Moving between those cultures, and eventually “coming back” to the U.S. without any lived context, required a specific kind of survival instinct. You learn to land in a place where you have no history and must quickly study the patterns, the people, and the vernacular of trust. You often feel like an intruder stepping into something that has been in motion for decades; you have to learn to listen to what isn’t being said.
In my work across Africa and other emerging markets, I noticed many “Western” models and examples of leadership being superimposed on local contexts. It often felt forced, creating friction where there didn’t need to be. Instead of pushing the script, I focused on honoring the collective perspectives and leadership worldviews that were already present.
Still, whether in the U.S., Zambia, India, or France, I’ve found that even when the context changes, certain things remain true: What is my fingerprint? What am I leaving behind? The power of legacy is spoken in a global tongue. If you can speak to that, you humanize the experience immediately.
What is something most leaders get wrong about culture?
The idea that an organization’s culture is “one and done.” Leaders often feel that once they’ve “fixed” the culture, they can turn their attention elsewhere. But culture is a living, breathing thing. You can’t take your foot off the gas pedal. The operational rhythm of a business is part of the culture. It requires staying “in it” continuously rather than treating it as a project with a completion date.
You’re also a poet! How does that creative identity show up today?
Growing up, everyone assumed poetry was where my life would go. It was a huge part of my identity, and for a long time, I was a spoken word artist. While my medium has changed, that kaleidoscopic lens remains. I look at an organization the way a poet looks at a page: looking for the rhythm, the subtext, and the soul of the thing.
Currently, I’m working on a project called Renegades of Creation with African and Middle Eastern musicians and visual artists who have created art through variations of my poetry. The title is a reflection of my own spiritual journey and the belief that human beings are the ultimate renegades: we practice the act of rebellion through exercising free will each and every day. I’ve found so much strength and beauty in that tension.
What drives your obsession with this work? What keeps you curious?
It’s the rare privilege of seeing a side of leaders and business that most people never witness. Diving into the heart of a company and its stakeholders is a deeply humbling experience; you are invited into the private architecture of how the organization actually works. I am constantly moved by how deeply these leaders want to do right by their people, both at home and at work. To be invited into that depth and to see the vulnerability behind the model is a journey I never take for granted. It is a blessing to contribute to a space where people are so sincerely in tune with their impact on the world.