There is a version of this problem everyone recognises. You set a clear goal. You pursue it, achieve it — or don’t — and either way, six months later, you are back where you started….
Browsing Category Thinking
Notes on programme governance, delivery under uncertainty, and occasionally on making things. Written when there is something worth saying — not on a schedule.
The Long Game
Most of the pressures you work under are built for the short term. Deadlines, quarterly numbers, immediate accountability — the architecture of most organisations rewards the decision that looks good now over the decision that…
The Finite Mindset Trap
There is a version of winning that leaves you worse off than if you hadn’t tried. It happens when you apply a finite mindset — chasing a clear winner, a measurable score, a defined endpoint…
The Periodic Table of Programme Excuses
163 programme excuses classified by chemical behaviour. Noble gases explain nothing. Alkali metals explode when exposed to data. Actinides contaminate everything they touch.
Fixed vs Growth Mindset: What the Distinction Actually Means
The fixed/growth mindset distinction has become one of the most widely cited frameworks in education, leadership development, and organisational culture. It has also become something of a slogan, absorbed into a layer of motivational language…
The Cluster F**k Intensity Scale
Every established discipline has a severity scale. Seismology has the Mercalli Intensity Scale. Meteorology has the Beaufort Scale. Nuclear safety has the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale. Each one works the same way: a…