Psychological Contract: Unspoken Trust between People & Institutions
An implicit understanding between individuals and organisations about mutual expectations and obligations — shaping motivation, trust, and perceived fairness beyond formal contracts.
Incentive Distortion: Reward vs Value
Misaligned incentives cause systems to optimise for metrics instead of meaning. When rewards outpace real value, performance looks strong but purpose erodes.
When Fear of AI Becomes the Real Risk
Fear of generative AI is often framed as caution. In reality, hesitation entrenches dysfunction — leaving teams buried in duplication and burnout.
Normalization of Deviance: When risk becomes routine
When small rule-bending becomes routine, organizations gradually accept higher risks as normal, eroding safeguards until failure becomes inevitable.
High Reliability Organisation (HRO) theory: Mindfulness in the Face of Risk
HRO theory explains how organisations in high-risk domains sustain safety by cultivating continuous mindfulness, error sensitivity, and resilience against drift.
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.
Capacity & Structure: The Architecture of Work
Capacity & Structure defines the scaffolding of people, processes & resources that set a system’s limits and shape its ability to grow, adapt, and deliver outcomes.
Systems Drift: When Rules Outpace Reality
Systems Drift is the slow misalignment of rules and reality. Left unchecked, it creates brittle compliance rituals and weakens institutional trust.
Normative vs. Coercive Compliance: Legitimacy vs. Imposed Authority
Normative compliance stems from a belief in legitimacy, while coercive compliance arises from imposed authority — understanding this divide reveals whether rules are followed out of trust or fear.
Merton’s Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: How Beliefs Create Reality
Merton’s Self-Fulfilling Prophecy explains how expectations shape behaviour in ways that make those expectations come true. Once a belief takes hold — whether accurate or not — it triggers actions that reinforce the original assumption, sustaining cycles of trust or mistrust within institutions and culture.