iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

A reductionist (the whole is no more than the sum of the parts) and deterministic (the future is predictable) worldview dates back to 1543. And yet, this is still the predominant worldview (or, at least, approach taken) today, with most people, in most organisations. #BVSSH

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people & AI together, continuously sensing, learning & adapting, psychological safety, balanced, renewable, circular, coordination, coherence, we're in the system rather than observing the system (2000s to present)

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▶️ Synthesise: Emergence & Coherence: "How does it connect and evolve? What are the outcome hypotheses? How can we learn quickly and safely?". Interdependence, nested and networked, ecosystems, value centres, complex adaptive systems, organisational agility, micro-enterprises,

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Complex Adaptive Systems, agility: Lillian Gilbreth, Mary Parker Follett, McGregor, Maslow, Bertalanffy, Mayo, Lewin, Trist, Emery, Drucker, Pink, et al. (1920s to 2000s)

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▶️ Empathise: Human-Centred: "How does it feel? What do people need?". Worker welfare, human relations, socio-technical systems, emergence, "you know what, Aristotle was right, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts!",

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▶️ Standardise: Scientific Management: "How do we control it? How do we make it efficient and repeatable?". Observe, measure, 'laws', impose, minimise variation. Reductionist and deterministic. Misapplied to socio-technical systems. Taylor, Gantt, Barth, et al. (late-1800s to mid-1900s)

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▶️ Analyse: Scientific Revolution. "What are its parts and laws? How does it work?". Observe, measure, laws, rules, "whole is sum of parts", the "Clockwork Universe". Reductionist and deterministic. Bacon, Descartes, Newton, et al. (mid-1500s to 1700s)

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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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Employers are not only consumers of experienced talent. We are also stewards of the system that creates it. #BVSSH

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We need to redesign early careers for an AI-enabled world, not simply delete them. We should continue to create opportunities for people to learn, practise, make mistakes, develop judgement and accumulate experience. There is, I believe, a social responsibility here.

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Today’s entry-level colleague is tomorrow’s experienced colleague. Today's entry-level colleague doesn't yet have the experience or wisdom to apply judgement to AI output. If every organisation optimises locally by removing entry-level roles, where do tomorrow’s senior people come from?

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Research, analysis, drafting, coding, administration. It is tempting for an organisation to look at this purely through the lens of efficiency: Why employ ten graduates if two experienced people with AI can do the work? But there is a systems problem.

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Each technology revolution increased productivity and created new forms of work. And the transition was rarely painless, there were winners and losers. Generative AI is now particularly good at many of the tasks traditionally given to people early in their careers.

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 25/09/2026

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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Not everyone will be replaced. #BVSSH

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Then make the emerging path easier for others to follow. Design is doing. Doing is design. When work is unknowable, the best path to optimise for desired outcomes can only emerge. And it will continue to emerge, so make sure the paved path is movable! #BVSSH

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Too often, change is designed centrally, rolled out, and then people are expected to follow the prescribed route. PATH takes a different approach. Start with Pathfinders (great naming!). Learn from where people naturally make progress. Create bubbles of better ways of working.

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They let people walk. Over time, the natural routes appeared in the grass. Only then did they pave the paths. This was within 'minimal viable guardrails', you couldn't walk on anyone's land. There is something powerful in that.

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 23/09/2026

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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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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It makes choosing well more important than ever. It makes a focus on outcomes and experimentation more important than ever. It makes continuously improving how we work, to get better balanced outcomes, more important than ever. What are you doing to prevent AI from accelerating waste? #BVSSH

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Organisations that thrive will be good at deciding: What is valuable? For whom? How will we know? What have we learnt? What will we learn next? How soon can we learn it? How will we behave in getting there? AI makes producing easier, like other tools before it.

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Defining value, defining desired outcomes, ensuring that they are balanced for society and for the planet, is for humans. AI is a tool, like a flint, weaving loom, steam engine, internal combustion engine or microprocessor, which helps us to achieve our desired outcomes.

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to another. Activity ≠ Output ≠ Outcome ≠ Value. If an organisation lacks clarity on the outcomes it is trying to achieve, AI won’t fix that. It will help the organisation travel in the wrong direction faster.

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 21/09/2026

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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29th September at 6pm EDT / 30th September 8am AEST Sign up here: www.meetup.com/sooner-safer...

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 21/09/2026

with 8,000 stores and 200,000 people. You'll explore: ● Moving from outputs to measurable outcomes ● Rethinking capacity, funding, key results, and culture ● Lessons on sequencing, remit, and finding your allies

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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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▶️ Bring internal audit and any external regulators or auditors with you on the journey ▶️ Speed AND Control #BVSSH

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▶️ Minimal Viable Guardrails, in unique context ▶️ Collaboration in multidisciplinary teams (incl. Safety Team), aligned to value and the consumer ▶️ Appropriate to the Risk Profile and Risk Appetite ▶️ More smaller change, within Minimal Viable Guardrails, reduces risk

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😎 Blind to risk Eh? What controls? What's risk appetite and risk profile? What are Minimal Viable Guardrails? "Don't know what you're talking about, need to get back to work" Neither speed nor control Instead, optimise for outcomes in context: ▶️ Not one size fits all approach to controls

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Seeking perfection over safe progress with early and often learning. Perversely leads to bigger risk, with late learning and a big bang. Control over speed. 🤠 The Wild West Spurs on. Fragile over agile. Incentivised for speed. Poor discipline. "We'll worry about that later" Speed over control.

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 16/09/2026

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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Think Big, Start Small, Learn Fast. Clear Leadership Guiding Principles with 'teeth'. Shared goals via OKRs. #BVSSH

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 16/09/2026

objectives still via role silos even if in multidisciplinary teams) Pattern: We need to be intentional about reducing threat and increasing and aligning incentives (explicit and implicit) when improving 'how we do what we do'. Invite over inflict. Communicate, communicate, communicate.

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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

Curiosity, critical thinking, shared outcome goals, multidisciplinary teams augmented with AI, a bias to action within minimal viable guardrails are key. Improving 'How we do, what we do' is essential. #BVSSH

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 15/09/2026

Building the wrong thing faster makes you wronger. Work piles up on the handover boundaries from one role silo to another role silo, leading to work waiting for even longer.

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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

A fabulous first SSH Live! #BVSSH

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Jon Smart @jon.bvssh.com · 14/09/2026

There was a real sense of community. People connecting, comparing notes, helping each other and taking ideas back into their own organisations. A huge thank you to everyone who helped make it happen, speakers, sponsors, volunteers and everyone who came along and contributed.

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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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(see also Coaching Kata, Mike Rother) If you want to focus on the predictability of anything, focus on the predictability of being able to learn early, often and safely. #BVSSH

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Not "why are you late?". What does " late" even mean? "Late" demonstrates that the future is not predictable. It is a thinking error for unique work. Instead, learn in nested cadences, early and often. What have we learnt? What will we learn next? How soon can we learn it?

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If it is unknowable and emergent, learn by doing, early and often (make the unknowable, knowable, by acting). Focus on outcome goals over output goals. Nurture intelligent failure and learning. Learn, reflect, pivot. Not fixing a predetermined solution, in a project plan, with a focus on output.

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