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The "BAU Tax": How to Plan a 12-Month Change Roadmap When You Can’t Stop the Daily Grind

The "BAU Tax": How to Plan a 12-Month Change Roadmap When You Can’t Stop the Daily Grind

We are often handed a "Double Mandate."
  1. Business As Usual (BAU): Keep the lights on, fix bugs, and serve customers. (Non-negotiable).
  2. Strategic Change: Deliver a massive portfolio of new features in 12 months. (Also non-negotiable).
The temptation is to look at our total capacity—say, 1000 hours—and assume we can "squeeze" BAU into the cracks.

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The Matrix Illusion: Why Local Efficiency Kills Global Speed (And How One Direction of Travel Fixes It)

If you work in a modern enterprise, you likely live in "The Matrix." On paper, it is a perfect grid of accountability: you report to a functional lead (who hones your skills) and a project lead (who directs your daily...

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Busting the Matrix

Busting the Matrix

The matrix is where flow goes to die; no one in the matrix can make decisions on their own, so nothing much changes.

The matrix must evolve. Networks result and thrive.

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Beyond Dashboards: How an Obeya Room Powers Data-Informed Decision making and Accelerates Delivery

Beyond Dashboards: How an Obeya Room Powers Data-Informed Decision making and Accelerates Delivery

Executives: Unlock effective delivery with evidence. Our latest post reveals the power of a tailored Obeya room for data-informed decision-making and accelerated results. Stop guessing, start leading with data. 

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Unleashing Innovation: Practical Steps to Cultivate Creativity in Every Corner of Your Organization.

Unleashing Innovation: Practical Steps to Cultivate Creativity in Every Corner of Your Organization.

In today’s fast-moving business world, innovation isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity. But game-changing ideas often don’t come from the boardroom. They come from the people closest to the work. Unleashing Innovation explores how to bridge the gap between those who spot problems and those empowered to solve them. From creating psychological safety to breaking down silos and celebrating experimentation, this guide offers practical steps to cultivate creativity at every level of your organization.

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There are no set recipes for how to do things, but we will give you proven ideas, principles, and success patterns to try out and see what works for you. Self-awareness, emergent learning, and adaptation are essential.

What is Evolved and why is it needed?

You tried the shortcuts. You realize there is no escalator to success. You want the people around you to be comfortable with you, you to be there for them, and for them to be there for you.

There are no set recipes for how to do things, but we will give you proven ideas, principles, and success patterns to try out and see what works for you. Self-awareness, emergent learning, and adaptation are essential.

You can join one self-contained module, some modules, or the entire series. Some modules cover in-depth topics that others only lightly touch. The content is interconnected yet independent.

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embrace paradoxes but not everything from the past should stay there

Why now?

Excessive bureaucracy curtails adaptiveness. So does an attitude of keeping promises even when it's learned they were terrible promises. More coherence is needed.

To mitigate the risk of negative consequences, more executives and board members need to embrace paradoxes and avoid false dichotomies. Consider humane effectiveness, adaptiveness, ambidexterity, and timeliness.

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migrate from a bureaucratic monolith or overly complicated scale-up to a continuous, balanced handling of paradoxes, rooted in a healthy, minimum viable bureaucracy

It's time

As an executive or board member, do you want to turn the tide? Do you want to be personally associated with something different, something positive, something pattern-oriented, something context-oriented? Do you want to protect your legacy? Do you want better results? 

Do you want to be associated with humane effectiveness, adaptiveness, and timeliness?

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