The Loyalty Loop: How Systems Use Belonging to Blind Us
Loyalty feels like virtue — but in complex systems, it can become a tool of control. This piece explores how belonging is engineered to silence feedback and why awareness, not rebellion, is the real counter-tactic.
Seeing Like a State: The Dangers of Simplifying Complexity
A critique of how states simplify complex realities into rigid rule systems, revealing the dangers of legibility when it erases local knowledge and lived practice.
Proxy Metrics: Stand-ins for Success vs Substitutes for Reality
Proxy metrics are substitute measures adopted when true outcomes are hard to track. Once they become targets, they often distort behaviour and drift into dysfunction.
Scenario Planning: Anticipating Futures Through Narrative
Scenario Planning uses structured narratives to explore multiple plausible futures, helping organisations test strategies and stay resilient under uncertainty.
Systems Thinking: Mapping Patterns in Complexity
Systems Thinking frames complexity through interconnections and feedback loops, helping anticipate unintended outcomes and design resilient, system-level strategies.
Triple-Loop Learning: Questioning Who Sets the Agenda
A deeper mode of organisational learning that questions not only actions and assumptions but also the purpose and power structures shaping learning agendas.
Cynefin Framework: Navigating Complexity and Sensemaking
The Cynefin Framework, developed by Dave Snowden, is a strategic sensemaking tool that distinguishes between ordered, complex, and chaotic contexts. It guides leaders in choosing responses that match the nature of their environment, helping organisations adapt, build resilience, and frame meaning in uncertainty.