Who maintains the machines

The gauges, not the gun I took my eldest climbing this morning and sat down with a book. I didn’t read much. I returned to the Stuart Brands Maintenance book and stopped about five lines in, and it triggered this piece. It’s how they happen, and it is

Chapter 3: The one difference that changes everything

“Purposes are deduced from behavior, not from rhetoric or stated goals.” Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems: A Primer So far Part One asks why operating models keep disappointing. Chapter 1 set out how they fail and why the usual explanations do not account for it. Chapter 2 showed that

Architects without Architecture

Yes, you read that right; it's the reverse of Rudofsky's MoMA exhibition, Architecture Without Architects. You noticed it. Anyway, onto the article. The observation Some engagements produce no target state at all; no future-state diagram, no gap analysis, and no roadmap; the client owns the

Chapter 2: What we design, and what we don't

So far "The purpose of a system is what it does." Stafford Beer. Chapter 1 made a single argument: operating model redesigns keep disappointing not because they are badly designed, but because they are aimed at the wrong layer. The formal model specifies structure, process, governance and incentives.

Part One: The problem we keep not solving

Chapter 1: The operating model that disappoints "Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets." Paul Batalden. The story in the opening chapter is not unusual. Change the institution, sector, and decade, and the pattern repeats. A new operating model is commissioned. Significant effort goes

Opening: what was working, and why did it stop

I have worked in and around large organisations for most of my career, and I have learned not to expect too much when I walk through the door of a new one. The politics settle in quickly, the early optimism fades, and within a few months the organisation reveals itself

What would have to be true and keeping the hypothesis as enterprise architecture gets lighter and faster

And before we start, a call out to Roger Martin for the wonderful phrase "What would have to be true" Modelling with what was to hand On a recent engagement, we were replacing a manufacturer's distributor portal. It was a complicated environment, and I needed something

Most of what makes the thing heavy is the relationship, not the parts.

I was listening to an episode of In Our Time on BBC Radio 4 this morning. My mother-in-law texted me that I might be interested, and I was. It was about particle accelerators, and it connected to several books I've been reading this year: Geoffrey West&

More on stupidity

The story This started as a script that went around social media: a monologue built around Dietrich Bonhoeffer's wartime essay on stupidity, illustrated throughout with examples from current politics. A story like that is only worth using if it's true, so I checked it; the essay&

Proximity isn't integration

And thanks to Google, Claude, Grammarly, and the lovely people of Croatia and the rest of Europe for this one. I have been thinking about this since our summer road trip, uncomfortable with using the awful events of the '90s as a seed for a discussion about organisational integration.

Entitlement isn’t a personality problem, it’s a systems problem

Reproduced from a LinkedIn post February 2026 I’d like to talk about entitlement. Be patient, there is a reason. I use the gym most days. It’s a place that’s traditionally aimed at the older middle class. I guess that’s me now. I watch the Porsche 4x4

The smooth organisation

Republished from a LinkedIn article from July 2026 I've been reading Scale by Geoffrey West. It’s a challenge, and half the time I have no idea what he is talking about, but there are moments that trigger thought, and the rest is like listening to Radio 4