iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Value is in the eye of the beholder. Value is something people feel, what is valuable to one person may be worth much less to another. The beholder could be a customer, colleague, partner, supplier, regulator, society, the planet or another stakeholder.

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 29/09/2026

From Mythicise, to Analyse, to Standardise, to Empathise, to Synthesise In the West: ▶️ Mythicise: Pre-Scientific. "Who or what causes this?". Authority in scriptures: Aristotle, Plato and Christian religious texts. Circular re-validation of existing 'truths' (1100 to 1700).

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 28/09/2026

One concern I have with AI is what happens to the bottom rung of the career ladder. We have been here before. Mechanisation replaced parts of manual work. Automation changed manufacturing. Computers removed large amounts of clerical and administrative work.

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 25/09/2026

Not everyone will be replaced. #BVSSH

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 24/09/2026

I really liked the PATH analogy that HMRC are using, shared by Tom in his talk at SSH Live (coming to YouTube soon!). It takes inspiration from universities in the US (such as Michigan State University) that, rather than paving all the paths across a new campus on day one, waited.

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 23/09/2026

Install transparency: do you have a balanced set of data insights into the system of work, end-to-end? Or is your org flying blind (or partially sighted)? If it's not being measured, it's not possible to inspect & adapt, and it's not possible to articulate progress. #BVSSH

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 22/09/2026

It is becoming dramatically easier to produce more stuff. More content, analysis, presentations, documents, insights and features. Yet the faster we produce, the easier it becomes to confuse activity with achievement, the easier it becomes to stack work up on the handover from one role silo

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 21/09/2026

Learn how Walgreens is making the shift from PMO to Value Realization Office (VRO) at the next Sooner Safer Happier Americas & APAC Meetup. Join Wes Keyser, Senior Director of the VRO at Walgreens, for a practical case study on making that shift inside a 120-year-old organisation

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 18/09/2026

No ticket, no credit 😀 #BVSSH

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 17/09/2026

Risk: not risk-averse, not the Wild West, not blind to risk. 🚫 Risk-averse bureaucracy Layers of approvals. Committees everywhere. One-size-fits-all approach to risk and controls. Decisions crawl. Incentive for people in control roles, if in doubt, is to say 'no'.

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 16/09/2026

Our biological response to threat kicks in twice as quickly, lasts twice as long and is twice as strong as our response to reward. Antipattern: accidentally increasing threat (mandated re-org from above with new roles) and not intentionally aligning incentives (behavioural norms not clear,

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 15/09/2026

AI reduces cognitive load for synthesis, exploration, summation and creation. It increases the need for critical thinking, alignment, outcomes > output, decision-making boundaries and adaptability. Done badly, misalignment scales faster, duplication happens faster, the wrong work gets done faster

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 14/09/2026

That’s a wrap on Sooner Safer Happier LIVE 2026. What I’m taking away most is the generosity in the room. People shared openly, the things that are working, the things that aren’t, what they’re learning, and the practical moves that are helping them make progress.

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 08/09/2026

Unique change is unknowable and emergent. It is not knowable and deterministic. The only thing that is predictable is unpredictability. Optimise your approach to the work, to the type of work.

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 07/09/2026

Months of planning, countless calls and last-minute changes. This week, it all comes together. I am super excited that Sooner Safer Happier LIVE kicks off this Wednesday.

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 04/09/2026

Due to <a desire for harmony at home> We believe that <not applying work concepts with one's partner> Will result in <a healthier relationship> We will know we're on the right path when: KR1: <decrease weekly eye rolls from 4 to none> KR2: <reduce weekly sighs from 6 to none>

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 03/09/2026

Every organisation is perfectly designed to get the results it gets. If you are happy with the results you are getting, don't change. If you are not, do you know what you want to optimise for? Do you have measures (leading and lagging) for those outcomes?

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 02/09/2026

Sooner Safer Happier LIVE is just 7 days away! A full day of case studies from teams putting the SSH principles into practice, including HMRC, UBS, Saxo Bank, Citco, DHSC, NHS, Tesco Mobile, RWE, and John Deere, plus a chance to connect with peers over coffee, lunch, and evening drinks.

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 01/09/2026

AI is making it dramatically easier and cheaper to produce more. More content. More analysis. More code. More output. But more output does not necessarily mean more value. When building is no longer the bottleneck, deciding what is worth building becomes even more important.

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 31/08/2026

Our brains are wired for survival. We have Loss Aversion: we'd rather avoid a loss than seek a gain, which means that we'd rather avoid trying something that might fail. This is good from an evolutionary survival perspective when in the wild, however, it is not ideal in an organisational context

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 28/08/2026

We fully support continuous learning. Continuously, after work. And continuously at your own expense 🤣 Invest in people. #BVSSH

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 27/08/2026

If you’re navigating complexity, trying to improve outcomes, or simply want to make your organisation function better, this is a space for leaders to learn and build connections that last. Sooner Safer Happier LIVE! is a unique practitioner-led event supporting whole-enterprise outcome improvement

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 26/08/2026

More output or activity does not necessarily equal better outcomes. Building the wrong thing faster makes you wronger. AI amplifies dysfunction or function. If we have role-based functional silos, with order-giving, order-taking and work passing, AI will produce more stuff, more quickly,

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 25/08/2026

Did you know that the word "priority" has only existed in the singular form until relatively recently? From the Latin prior, meaning former or earlier, it referred to the "one thing that came before all others".

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 24/08/2026

The main source of failure is our failed attempts to avoid failure. Fearing intelligent failure is fearing learning. Fearing intelligent failure leads to unintelligent failure. Intelligent failure IS learning. We need to learn quickly, cheaply, uniquely and safely. #BVSSH

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 21/08/2026

Communicate, communicate, communicate. Communicate three more times than you think you need to, and you're a third of the way there. Change is social. Data, storytelling, change agents, incentive (it's a priority, the outcomes are better, the water is warm!). Cross the chasm!

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 20/08/2026

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 19/08/2026

Four dimensions of psychological safety: 1. Attitude to risk and failure: the degree to which it is permissible to make mistakes 2. Open conversation: the degree to which sensitive and difficult topics can be discussed openly

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 18/08/2026

In order to get to growth, there is a need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, to pass through fear of failure, to get to early and often learning.

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 17/08/2026

Did you know that the word 'entropy' comes from the Greek words for in (en) + transformation (tropē)?! Organisational entropy (disorder) increases over time (second law of thermodynamics), unless there is energy to maintain or reduce it. Bureaucracy, complexity, dependencies,

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 14/08/2026

Antipattern: Learning bubbles. Information, knowledge and learning trapped in silos (or worse, intentionally withheld with a view that 'knowledge is power') Pattern: Intentionally pop the learning bubbles e.g. Communities of Practice (voluntary, shared learning), storytelling, awards,

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 13/08/2026

I’m excited to announce that Matt Ring from John Deere will be speaking at Sooner Safer Happier LIVE this September. In his session, Are We Ready for the AI Transformation?, Matt explores a question many organisations are now facing:

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 12/08/2026

The Sooner Safer Happier vision statement is 'A movement enabling organisations to achieve better outcomes for all and a more humane world of work'. 🔹 Movement: if you want an idea to travel, don't travel with it. Build a community. Share learning. Let it spread.

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 11/08/2026

Continuous improvement is continuous. #BVSSH

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 10/08/2026

Optimise for the fast flow of value, end-to-end. #BVSSH

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 07/08/2026

Antipattern: Control without speed (one size fits all) or speed without control (fragile, not agile) Pattern: Speed AND control. #MinimalViableCompliance. Safety SMEs aligned to value streams. Not one size fits all. Continuous Compliance. The better your brakes, the faster you can go #BVSSH

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 06/08/2026

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 05/08/2026

Most organisations will have multiple ways of working, running in parallel, some increasing, some decreasing. Think Big, Start Small, Lean Fast. A big bang is an antipattern. It will be new labels on the same old behaviours. Step up the S-curve, at the pace of re-learning.

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 04/08/2026

Are bonuses the new fines? Back in the day (early 1800s) at the Belper Mills, one day's pay per week (1/6th of the weekly pay, as it was a six-day working week) was withheld and paid out once a quarter, minus any fines for misbehaving. For organisations that pay bonuses as a significant part of

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 03/08/2026

The words 'convince' & 'resistance' should not enter the vocabulary. Start with why and invite over inflict. Get behind the natural champions, start where there is pull. Prove benefits in context, starting small and communicate, communicate, communicate. Change is social. #BVSSH

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 31/07/2026

From productivity to 'valuetivity'. Most value, in the shortest time, with the *least* effort. Over velocity. Delivering the wrong thing faster makes you wronger. #BVSSH

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 30/07/2026

We're delighted to announce that Bianca Nimmo, Deputy Director for Simplify & Deliver at the UK Department of Health and Social Care, will be joining Emily Roche on stage at Sooner Safer Happier LIVE this September. Together, they'll share the story behind Simplify and Deliver - a department-wide,

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 29/07/2026

GenAI antipattern: primary measures are usage, output and/or cost reduction. Pattern: business outcomes measures. e.g. Lead Time (time to value), First Call Resolution (FCR), Abandonment Rate, Customer Satisfaction, Colleague Engagement, etc. Antipatterns: ❌ Usage: "The CEO has set a top-down

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 28/07/2026

Continuously transforming > a Transformation programme #BVSSH

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 27/07/2026

Stop Starting and Start Finishing! The fewer cars you have on the road, the faster they can travel. Reducing work in progress reduces time to learning & value. This de-risks delivery, enables pivoting, and maximizes value #BVSSH

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 24/07/2026

An emergent mindset over a deterministic mindset. The future is not knowable & linear in the context of unique change. There are unknown unknowns. There is no best practice. Leverage emergence, be clear on the direction (outcome hypotheses), have a bias to action, learn by doing, reflect,

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 23/07/2026

The mindset behind the introduction of the Charting of an Organisation (Org Chart) was predominantly about authority and who took orders from whom. The 'reporting line' in the org chart, historically, has been an 'ordering line'. Clinton Edgar Woods writes in 1914: "There is then no loophole

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 22/07/2026

In the previous 4 Industrial Revolutions, work was mostly repetitive and *knowable*, with people as cogs in a machine, with narrow division of labour, work passing and detailed work orders coming from the Planning Department.

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 21/07/2026

As a leader wanting to optimise outcomes, how should I behave? Align, Act, Reflect, Adapt (AARA) 🎯 Align: be clear on the Why and the direction (measurable outcome hypotheses). Limit Work In Progress.

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 20/07/2026

Antipattern: order giver, order taker with low autonomy. Here are your tasks, do them without question, in your role-based silo. In the previous four technology-led revolutions, managers told workers exactly what to do and when to do it. This evolved in the context of repetitive, manual labour,

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