Why Projects Fail Before the Work Even Begins
Why an unclear problem, weak success criteria and untested assumptions can undermine execution before kickoff.
The Essay Archive
Ideas worth examining before you act
Practical essays on purpose, decision-making, leadership and the assumptions that quietly shape our choices.
The Difference Between Being Busy and Being Necessary
A practical framework for separating urgent, useful, optional and unnecessary work.
Before You Automate a Process, Ask Why It Exists
Automation can accelerate waste when the underlying process is never questioned.
When a KPI Becomes More Important Than the Outcome
How metric fixation encourages gaming and separates performance from purpose.
The Hidden Cost of Solving the Wrong Problem Well
Strong execution can deepen losses when it is applied to a badly framed problem.
Why Good Employees Stop Asking Questions
Silence is often learned when questions are discouraged and doubt is treated as resistance.
Before You Set a Goal, Ask Who Chose It
Separate goals you genuinely choose from ambitions inherited from culture and expectation.
A Better Question Than “How Can We Do This Faster?”
Before optimising speed, decide whether work should be done, simplified, delayed or stopped.
Before You Learn Another Skill, Decide What It Should Change
Choose learning by the capability and opportunity it should create, not by course completion.
What Happens When the Original Why No Longer Exists?
How to recognise when a project, habit or policy has outlived its original purpose.
The Action Bias: Why Checking Boxes is Making You Miserable
Doing feels like progress, but it can be an escape from thinking. Learn to distinguish useful movement from false productivity.
The “So What?” Drill: A Simple Framework for Brutal Strategic Clarity
A practical sequence of questions for testing whether a goal matters, what it changes and whether the proposed work deserves attention.
Why Teams Fail to Execute (Hint: It’s Rarely the Instructions)
Execution often breaks because people lack context, trade-offs and decision rights-not because the task list is incomplete.