Not Business as Usual
A short note on proportion, attention, and stepping back during a civic moment.
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2026 AI Trends Every Business Leader Should Be Ready For
AI is moving from experimentation to everyday business reality. In 2026, the biggest gains will come not from better models, but from organizations that rethink workflows, roles, and how decisions actually happen.
When Everyone Owns Change, Failure Has No Owner
In modern change management, "shared ownership" often results in orphaned outcomes. This article breaks down why collective responsibility is a structural trap and how to restore true accountability to your projects.
The Myth of AI-Driven Job Loss
AI is not removing the work. It is removing the roles and offering a story that makes those decisions easier to explain. When the work remains but no one can name who now carries it, organizations do not transform. They shift the weight, quietly, and call it progress.
From Observer to Contributor in Workshops
Being an observer in a workshop can feel like walking a tightrope. Speak too much and you disrupt the flow. Say nothing and your value disappears. This guide shows how to move from observer to contributor with intent, timing, and impact.
The USPS Changed a Small Rule. It Just Made Tax Filing Riskier.
A small USPS rule change quietly made mailing tax returns riskier. Postmarks may no longer reflect when you mailed your return, shifting the burden of proof to you. Here’s what independent practitioners need to know before deadlines hit.
How to Use AI Without Losing Your Edge
AI can speed up change work, but it can also quietly erode the thinking behind it. New research suggests overreliance on AI creates “cognitive debt,” weakening judgment, recall, and sensemaking if we’re not intentional about how we use it.
The End of Best Practices and the Rise of Situational Judgment
Best practices are breaking down. Not because they failed, but because the conditions they were built for no longer exist. What’s replacing them is situational judgment—the ability to decide, adapt, and act without a playbook.
Why Shared Services Break First in AI Transformations
Shared services are often the first place AI breaks—not because the tech fails, but because automation removes the human judgment holding complex systems together. When exceptions rise and authority stays centralized, shared services absorb the damage long before leaders see it.
Year-End Metrics Lie (and What to Measure Instead)
Year-end metrics are designed to show completion, not readiness. The problem is that change does not resolve on a fiscal calendar. What matters most often shows up after the dashboards turn green, in confidence gaps, workarounds, and quiet strain. This piece explores what to measure instead.
An Unwrapped Look at the Work Behind the Work
This year-end Unwrapped looks past dashboards and milestones to name the work change practitioners actually carried. The stabilization, translation, and risk absorption that kept change moving rarely shows up in the recap, but it shaped everything.
Knowing What Customers Will Do Is Not the Same as Knowing What to Do Next
Organizations are getting better at predicting customer behavior, but not better at responding to it. When insight outpaces authority and judgment, CX becomes reactive, automated, and transactional. Prediction alone does not create better experiences.
Cash Flow Beats Revenue: What the Last 12 Months Actually Tell You
Revenue can look healthy while your business quietly drains your energy. Cash flow tells a more honest story: when money actually arrives, how long you float the work, and where stress becomes structural. Before you plan the year ahead, look at the patterns hiding behind your numbers.
Cleaning Up Your Business Ops So Next Year Hurts Less
If your business feels heavier than the work you do, operations are likely the problem. This article walks through simple, end-of-year fixes that reduce stress and make next year easier to live in.
How to Handle Being Out of the Loop
When a decision is made without you, the instinct is to react fast and reassert control. This article explains why that impulse backfires, how to regain context, and how seasoned practitioners re-enter with credibility when the room has already moved on.
HR’s AI Moment: From Talent Partner to Risk Governor
As AI reshapes hiring, performance, and workforce decisions, HR is increasingly left managing risk and employee fallout rather than shaping outcomes. Without early influence over design and use, HR’s strategic role is quietly being reduced to governance and enforcement.