I'm writing a book I swore I'd never write

I'm writing a book I swore I'd never write.

Not because I lack opinions. God knows I have plenty. I've been that guy with the uncomfortable observation for 30 years. The one pointing out what everyone's politely ignoring. My colleagues have loved me for it.

Here's one of those observations: most transformation work is designed to fail.

Not because people aren't smart or committed. They are. But we're solving the wrong problem. We keep asking "How do we get people to change?" when what we should be asking is "What are we designing people into?"

You can't workshop your way out of a system that rewards the opposite of what you're asking for. I've watched people try. You can't train behaviors the organization actively punishes. You can't vision-statement past incentive structures that make change impossible.

I've watched this same pattern for three decades now. Different companies, different industries, same outcome. Brilliant people blaming themselves for structural problems they didn't create and can't fix from where they're standing.

The work isn't in the intervention. It's in what's there before anyone notices there's a problem.

That's what The Possibility Principle of Design is about. Not another framework. Not another promise of certainty. Just a different starting point. Designing conditions upstream instead of managing consequences downstream.

It's for people who've sat through enough transformation meetings to know something's missing. For leaders tired of being handed solutions to problems nobody took time to understand. For anyone who's realized the issue isn't the people. It's what they're being asked to work within.

I'm sharing this as it develops. Rough edges and all. The ideas I'm testing. The patterns I'm still figuring out how to name. The uncomfortable truths I apparently can't stop pointing out.

Next I'll write about why this isn't Design Thinking with a new coat of paint, and why that distinction matters more than it probably should.

The future doesn't show up ready-made. We design it, starting further upstream than most of us think to look.

If this resonates, follow along. And if you've ever felt stuck between what your organization says it wants and what it's actually set up to do, I'd love to hear where that gap shows up for you.

This is part of my ongoing exploration of The Possibility Principle of Design.

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#PossibilityPrinciple #DesignLeadership #LeadingThroughChange #FutureOfWork #UpstreamDesign