Lost Consultants

After writing this series, one thought keeps coming back to me. Most organisations don’t suffer from a lack of feedback. They suffer from a lack of learning. Surveys can reveal patterns. Conversations can create understanding. Actions are what ultimately make people believe that speaking up matters. Here are a few fairies worth sitting with. 📚 Books The Fearless Organization — Amy…

That may sound obvious, but many organisations unconsciously treat employee surveys as reporting mechanisms rather than learning mechanisms. They collect scores, compare them against benchmarks, discuss trends, and celebrate improvements. Yet when the next survey arrives, many of the same topics resurface. Communication. Workload. Prioritization. Collaboration. Trust. After a while, one…

Because surveys do not create honesty. People do. Most organisations focus on survey design. Should responses be anonymous? How many questions should we ask? How frequently should we measure engagement? These questions matter. But they are not the most important ones. A more important question is: Do people feel safe enough to tell the truth? The Purpose of Anonymity Anonymous surveys…

The Hidden Cost of Survey Fatigue is not lower response rates. It’s lower belief. Most organisations interpret survey fatigue as an indication that employees have become unwilling to provide feedback. But people generally don’t get tired of being heard. They get tired of repeating themselves. More Surveys Are Not Always Better Annual surveys become quarterly pulse surveys. Quarterly surveys…

Employee Survey Processes Need Consistency. Not because consistency guarantees good results. But because inconsistency quickly destroys trust. Most organisations spend considerable time designing survey questions, selecting tools, defining participation targets, and preparing reports. Far less attention is given to ensuring employees experience the survey process in a similar way across the…

Employee Surveys in a Matrix Organisation are much harder than they appear. In a traditional hierarchy, the logic is relatively simple. Employees belong to a team, report to a manager, complete a survey, and the manager works with the team to address the results. A matrix organisation changes that picture completely. An employee may belong to a functional department, a chapter, a platform, a…

Employee Surveys Don’t Create Change. That statement may sound obvious, yet many organisations behave as if collecting feedback is the same as improving the workplace. Every year, employees receive invitations to engagement surveys, satisfaction surveys, pulse surveys, culture surveys, and wellbeing surveys. The results are aggregated, benchmarked, discussed in management meetings, and…

Over the past weeks, we explored how AI is changing the foundations of organisations. We looked at: work becoming cheaper and faster roles starting to blur planning losing part of its purpose workflows becoming invisible thinking becoming the new bottleneck leadership shifting from control to clarity None of these changes happen overnight. But together they point in the same…

For a long time, leadership and control were closely linked. Not always explicitly.But structurally. Leaders were expected to: assign work track progress remove blockers ensure delivery And that made sense. Because execution was the problem. Control Was a Rational Strategy If work is: slow complex dependent on individuals Then control becomes a way to reduce risk. You define: who…

For a long time, organisations were constrained by execution. Getting things done was: slow expensive unpredictable That’s why we built systems around it: roles to divide work (as explored in The Death of Roles) planning to reduce uncertainty (see Why Planning Breaks When Execution Stops Being the Problem) workflows to coordinate effort (as described in Workflows Without Humans) All of…

Workflows are everywhere. They define: how work moves who does what when something is “done” In many organisations, workflows are the operating model. They create order. They create clarity. And most importantly: They make human collaboration possible at scale. Why Workflows Exist in the First Place Workflows were never designed for elegance. They were designed to solve a very…

Planning has always been about one thing: Dealing with uncertainty. We plan because we don’t know: how long something will take what problems will appear how complex the work really is So we: estimate sequence prioritize allocate resources Planning is our way of creating predictability in an unpredictable world. Execution Used to Be the Risk Most planning practices are built on a…

In most organisations, one question defines everything: “What is your role?” It determines: what you work on what you’re responsible for how you’re evaluated how others interact with you Roles create structure. They make organisations understandable. They give people a place. Why Roles Ever Made Sense Roles were never arbitrary. They emerged because work needed to…

For years, organisations have tried to improve how work gets done. better processes clearer roles faster delivery more efficiency And for a long time, that made sense. Because work was the constraint. Work Was Always the Bottleneck Most operating models, workflows, and management practices are built on one assumption: Human effort is scarce, slow, and expensive. That’s why we: plan…

Over the past weeks, this series explored a shift: From control → to trust. But trust is not a simple concept. It is influenced by: system design power structures incentives human psychology And depending on where you look, trust can appear as: a leadership principle a structural outcome or even an illusion To close this series, here are five books that challenge and expand how we…

“Just let go.” It sounds simple. But for many leaders, it feels unrealistic. Because letting go is often associated with: losing control losing visibility losing accountability And ultimately: losing responsibility for outcomes So leaders hold on. Not because they want control. But because they don’t see a viable alternative. The Real Fear Behind Letting Go Letting go is not…

Trust is often framed as a leadership quality. “Good leaders trust their teams.”“Organisations need a culture of trust.” But this framing misses something important. Trust is not just a belief. It is a response to the environment. And in many organisations, that environment makes trust feel risky. Why Trust Often Feels Irrational In the previous articles, we explored: why control feels…