In the News

A rule that's doing its job doesn't get announced, because nobody's worried about it. Think about your office building. There's no sign that says "We promise not to lock the fire exits." The fire code covers it, and so does habit. Now imagine the tenants asked the building manager, in writing, whether the exits would stay unlocked this year. The manager's reply doesn't tell you much, but the question does. Something gave the tenants doubt, which created the need to ask.

In situations where the underlying cause of the issue is structural, swapping in a new CEO doesn’t work. The new leader walks into the same failed (and invisible) Rules layer. The targets and the penalty for missing them haven't moved. The people who learned to smooth results are still there, and so is the founder's influence. So the new leader either keeps the pressure on and inherits the problem, or backs off and gets blamed for missed results. Either way, they're the one w