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Foundations
First principles of organisational consultancy and the grain.
5 articles
Foundations·7 min
The difference between strategy and operating reality
Strategy is a story about the future. Operating reality is a description of the present. Most leadership teams confuse the two.
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Foundations·6 min
Operating systems vs operating models
An operating model is a slide. An operating system is what runs when nobody is looking. The distinction is the entire point.
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Foundations·9 min
The grain metaphor: reading your organisation
Wood has a grain. So does every organisation. Cut with it and the work compounds; cut against it and you spend the rest of the…
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Foundations·8 min
Why most change programmes fail
70% of change programmes fail. The reason is rarely strategy — it's that the grain was never read before the cut was made.
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Foundations·7 min
What is organisational consultancy?
Organisational consultancy is the practice of reading how a company actually operates — and changing it without breaking what…
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