Articles

Essays and field notes by topic.

One article library, organized by topic rather than separate blogs.

Stop making bad work faster

Systems · September 08, 2026

Stop making bad work faster

In 1990 Michael Hammer told companies to stop using new technology to make obsolete processes faster. We now have far better technology and appear to have preserved the mistake. Most bad corporate processes were never designed. They accumulated, one control and one spreadsheet at a time, until nobody could explain why any of it existed. The current generation of automation tools can strip enormous amounts of manual work out of arrangements like that, which is not the same as removing the reason the work exists. Drawing on the AICD's 2026 Director Sentiment Index and research from McKinsey, Deloitte and Microsoft, this piece sets out what to ask before approving the next business case promising thousands of hours saved, and why saved hours are a poor measure of anything on their own.

rtificial intelligence automation business process reengineering workflow redesign operating model productivity corporate governance board of directors business transformation leadership Michael Hammer
The Slow Ledger

Systems · July 07, 2026

The Slow Ledger

A man who once managed a hundred and sixty-five billion dollars announces the end of the arrangement between ad reads. The essay takes what holds in his warning, that bubbles form around true ideas and that advisers answer to a different number than yours, then turns his own instrument on him. Underneath sits one portable mechanism: fast numbers celebrated, slow numbers drawn down, the bill arriving later, addressed to someone younger.

investing markets bubbles incentives systemsthinking jeremygrantham riskmanagement financialmedia
It's Getting Obvious Who's Actually Thinking

Systems · June 23, 2026

It's Getting Obvious Who's Actually Thinking

For all of history a long, fluent document was expensive, so we read it as proof of the thinking behind it. AI takes that cost to zero, and the receipt becomes a costume. Senior leaders, flooded and unconvinced, would rather you walked into their office than sent a file. Underneath the flood sits a quieter cost: the people outsourcing the thinking are getting weaker, and the shared record is filling with forgettable noise.

AI artificial intelligence knowledge work writing critical thinking communication leadership productivity future of work attention deep work AI reports AI writing
The Half of Manifesting That Works

Systems · June 08, 2026

The Half of Manifesting That Works

Manifesting is half right. Expectation does not transmit a request to the universe. It works by changing attention, the body's response, and persistence, which shape the actions that produce a result. The naive version fails because the nervous system reads receipts, not affirmations, and because picturing the win drains the drive to chase it. The working half is concrete: name the outcome and the real obstacle, pick the one move that brings money or progress in, shrink it to a daily rep, bolt it to a fixed trigger, and count the reps you control.

mindset self trust manifesting psychology behavior change habits discipline small wins mens development stoicism action implementation intentions