I have been reflecting on my experience working in the Energy sector, one of the most complex, regulated and rapidly evolving industries in Australia. Operating under intense regulation, cost-of-living pressure and public scrutiny, energy organisations must deliver reliable, affordable services while enabling the energy transition, evolving markets like EV and distributed energy, and national decarbonisation commitments. In my experience, technical or regulatory constraints

This is the 15th blog post in the Organising for Outcomes series. It is helpful to understand where we’ve come from, how today’s ways of working have evolved, and the context that those ways of working evolved in. This helps us to understand why we’re working the way we’re working and what we might want to change in today’s context, which is significantly different compared to previous technology-led revolutions. In the previous post, we looked at the rise and rise of a scie

This is the 14th blog post in the Organising for Outcomes series. It is helpful to understand where we’ve come from, how today’s ways of working have evolved, and the context that those ways of working evolved in. This helps us to understand why we’re working the way we’re working and what we might want to change in today’s context, which is significantly different compared to previous technology-led revolutions. In previous post we looked at the shift from Systematic Manage

This is the 13th blog post in the Organising for Outcomes series. It is helpful to understand where we’ve come from, how today’s ways of working have evolved, and the context that those ways of working evolved in. This helps us to understand why we’re working the way we’re working and what we might want to change in today’s context, which is significantly different compared to previous technology-led revolutions. In previous posts we looked at the growth of Systematic Mana

What if the way your organisation runs today, team structures, daily rhythms, and performance systems were never designed for your world at all? We set out to trace the roots of the modern world of work on the Sooner Safer Happier 1st Industrial Revolution Tour. We visited the sites where it all began: the first factory system, the first production line, the first shift work, the first time human labour was treated as a repeatable input rather than a creative force. The paral

When whispers of ‘keyboard tracking’ started circulating this triggered a huddle with my client about how to explain to well-intentioned yet traditionally minded SVPs the dangers of confusing activity with efficiency. We talked through a number of efficiency measurement systems that have become widely accepted over the past decade. Some were already in place in the organisation (DORA) and others were a work in progress. Thankfully for this organisation, the exercise resulted

Belper Mills and Industrial Community Building Colourised photo of Belper circa 1912 What if the way your organisation runs today, team structures, daily rhythms, and performance systems were never designed for your world at all? We set out to trace the roots of the modern world of work on the Sooner Safer Happier 1st Industrial Revolution Tour. We visited the sites where it all began: the first factory system, the first production line, the first shift work, the first time h

Why Do We Still Work This Way? What if the way your organisation runs today, team structures, daily rhythms, and performance systems were never designed for your world at all? We set out to trace the roots of the modern world of work on the Sooner Safer Happier 1st Industrial Revolution Tour. We visited the sites where it all began: the first factory system, the first production line, the first shift work, the first time human labour was treated as a repeatable input rather t

Are your metrics enabling Better Value Sooner Safer Happier? Why do we need to talk about metrics now? Most organisations have various delivery dashboards, OKR trackers, and risk reports as ways to measure performance. But more often than not, organisations are measuring what is easy, not what is useful. Many current measurement systems reflect legacy mindsets. They are designed for control, not learning. They focus on status reporting, not flow. These systems might provide

Myth : Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations (1776) was the first to write about division of labour. There's just one problem: Adam Smith never set foot in a pin factory. In fact we need to go back 3 steps to Jean-Rodolphe Perronet in the 1740s, the only person in this story to have actually visited a pin factory! Image of a pin factory, Diderot's Encyclopédie (1755) (1) Adam Smith (1776): The Economist Smith's description of a pin factory in The Wealth of Nations (1776) intr