Practical thinking on reform, governance, capability and the future of work.
Featured
Don’t start your operating model design with an org chart
The org chart is the last artefact of operating-model design, not the first — and holding it back is what makes the rest of the model work.
Tips for embedding a new operating model
Change management, room for people to adapt, and clear decision rights are what make a new operating model stick.
Don’t limit architecture to IT
Architecture thinking is too valuable to spend only on the IT shop; it can answer the organisation’s hardest strategy questions.
Reform that lands
Constraints as the seed of invention
Treat constraints as the seed of invention rather than an obstacle to design around.
Use OKRs at home
The discipline of OKRs works just as well on your own life as it does on an organisation.
If you’re not already using OKRs, start asap
OKRs work because they force you to decide what actually matters, and then hold yourself to it.
Is your proposal really viable?
Desirability, viability and feasibility are the three lenses every strategy, operating model or service design has to pass.
How to automate strategy execution
Design the organisation so that execution happens as a function of time, rather than as a separate effort.
Change management is not a mystical art
Change management done well is craft, structure and discipline — not charisma, and not force.
Governance and assurance
When it’s time to do something about IT
How to tell the difference between an IT function that is quietly working and one that needs structural change.
Short feedback loops
If progress has stalled, it is usually the feedback loop — not the strategy — that needs fixing.
The problem with accountability
Accountability has a shadow side: held badly, it produces blame rather than integrity.
Building capability
Good enterprise architects are systems thinkers
Good enterprise architects are systems thinkers, interested in everything that crosses a functional boundary.
Systems thinking gives you a valued perspective
Systems thinking is what lets architects see the bigger picture, and the hidden opportunity inside it.
The possibility of doing something amazing exists
Every design decision is a chance to do something amazing; the norms and expectations that say otherwise are usually negotiable.
AI and the future of work
Stay alert for pointless work
Discipline specialists can optimise their own patch and make the whole organisation worse; checking for pointless work before the plan is set is worth doing.
Sustainable, humanistic organisations do better
The evidence that sustainable, humanistic organisations outperform is easy to find; the work is redesigning the business to match it.
The work environment is like a garden
The performance of your people is a function of the environment you keep creating for them.
How the work happens is as important as What work happens.
How you work with your team matters as much as what you ask of them.