Capable organizations spend enormous effort on things that produce no movement. I study Change Energy: the organization’s practical capacity to convert intention, information, authority, and human effort into changed behavior. As managing partner at Don’t Panic Labs, I work with senior leaders who are trying to move things and have started to suspect that effort is not the same thing as work.
Smart, well-funded organizations expend enormous effort and produce no movement. I study why. The talk explains what Change Energy is, where organizational energy gets trapped, and what it takes to convert intention into actual behavior change.
Medicine has malpractice standards. Structural engineering has building codes. Software has hope. I make the case for professional accountability in software product development, drawing on lessons from disciplines that figured this out centuries ago.
Most product ideas fail not because they are technically infeasible, but because the founder is in love with the solution instead of the problem. I use the Mechanical Turk story to explore the psychology of entrepreneurial self-deception, and the cheapest test you can run to find out which kind of love you have. With AI, that test costs even less.
I’m available for conferences, corporate events, and panels. Find me on LinkedIn to discuss topics, format, and availability.