Writing

Emily Ball Cicchini, PhD, writes about how leaders and teams navigate change: what we notice, the stories we tell about it, and how we find balance along the way. Her work spans a business book, more than 35 plays, peer-reviewed research in organizational communication, and essays for leaders of mission-based organizations.

Book

Leading Through Impermanence: How to Manage Constant Change with Courage, Wisdom, and Grace
A practical, story-driven guide for leaders of mission-based organizations. Ten Songs of Action, five Dances of Balance, and five GRACE stories (Gravitas, Resonance, Awareness, Confidence, Equilibrium) show how to lead teams through change without losing your footing.

Articles & Essays

• "Five Stories of Balance: What 250 Years of American Nonprofits Teach Us About Impermanence"
  Nonprofit Quarterly · June 2026
• "Online Education Must Get Better"
  Op-ed, Austin American-Statesman · August 2014
• "Adventures in Online Learning"
  Cover story, Life & Letters, College of Liberal Arts, The University of Texas at Austin · October 2013
• "New Media as Performance"
  HowlRound Theatre Commons · January 2012
• "Did I Help My Students—or Not?"
  Talking Writing · September 2011

Research

• "Communicating Impermanence: Temporal Structuring of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Everyday Organizational Life"
  Doctoral dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin · 2020
• "Events, Structure, and Time: Making Sense of Looping Theories"
  National Communication Association, 103rd Annual Meeting · 2017
• "New Media Art"
  Chapter in Reading Contemporary Performance: Theatricality Across Genres, ed. Gabrielle Cody and Meiling Cheng · Routledge · 2015
• "Testing an AI-Enhanced Essay Grading Tool"
  International Conference on Science and Social Research · 2014
• "Faculty on Tablets: Disruptions of Mobile Knowledge Working"
  Research abstract · 2014
• "Social Network Resilience: The Story of The Well, Open Salon & Our Salon"
  Research abstract

Full research record on Google Scholar.

Plays

Emily has written more than 35 plays and six screenplays. Her work has won the Austin Critics' Table and B. Iden Payne awards, and she is resident playwright with Pollyanna Theatre Company.

• Edward, the Owl and the Calico Cat
  Inspired by the life and work of poet Edward Lear · Dramatic Publishing
• Like a Metaphor
  A one-act dramedy about a teen wheelchair user, recovering from a car crash, who finds an unexpected bond with a nonconformist musician · YouthPLAYS
• Becoming Brontë
  The early lives of the Brontë sisters · Austin Critics' Table Award, Best Original New Script
• Mays & Terese
  An imagined meeting between Madalyn Murray O'Hair and Mother Teresa · Developed through the New Harmony Project; produced by Bloomington Playwrights Project
• Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter
  Adapted from Diane Stanley's picture book
• A Dragon's Happy Day
  A young dragon with ADHD finds his way

Browse more plays on New Play Exchange, Dramatic Publishing, and in collected volumes of children's plays on Lulu.

More Writing

• Continuity Works, Emily's newsletter on leading through impermanence
• Essays on Medium, including "Managing Through Impermanence" (2020)
• Emily's Corner, reflections on literacy and leadership at BookSpring