By Kevin McDonnell   You’re Not Stuck—Your Thinking Is Most leaders like to think of themselves as adaptive, creative problem solvers. But under pressure—during integrations, restructurings, or periods of rapid growth—we tend to default to what’s familiar. The frameworks that once made us successful become shortcuts. Experience becomes a filter. Instead of increasing clarity, it quietly narrows situational awareness . Situational awareness is not just knowing what’s happening

As organizations scale, leaders often struggle to answer a deceptively simple question: What actually changes about managerial ability as careers progress?  Titles grow, scopes expand, and decision rights widen—but many organizations lack a coherent model explaining how  thinking, judgment, and time-horizon must evolve. More than three decades ago, Elliott Jaques  offered one of the most rigorous answers to this question in his seminal work on Stratified Systems Theory (SST)

As organizations grow, the nature of executive work changes. In smaller enterprises, top leaders often make key operational calls directly—approving projects, allocating budgets, or resolving issues in real time. But as a company matures, this model quickly reaches its limits. The volume and complexity of decisions expand exponentially, and no small group of executives can (or should) decide everything. At scale, the true role of the executive team shifts from decision-making

In most organizations, strategy doesn’t fail because people disagree with it — it fails because they don’t know how to apply  it. Managers aren’t confused about what  the company wants to achieve; they’re uncertain about where, when,  and within what limits  to act. That’s why effective strategies always include two anchors: context  and constraint.  Without them, vision becomes rhetoric and execution becomes guesswork. Strategy Without Context Is Just Ambition Context explai

How to Empower Your Managers to Take Risks and Innovate In today’s hyper-competitive, fast-changing markets, innovation is no longer...

Abstract Capitalism is often criticized for its inequalities and environmental impacts, yet it remains the most effective system for...

Much has been written about the traits of great leaders — integrity, vision, decisiveness, empathy, adaptability. We debate the merits of...

The Cultural Imperative In every organization, employees naturally operate with some degree of self-interest. The leadership challenge is...

In today's fast-paced, innovation-driven environments, the ability of managers to take calculated risks is crucial for organizational...

In today’s fast-evolving business landscape, particularly within knowledge-driven sectors, organizational clarity plays a critical role...

In the fast-paced, knowledge-driven world of technology, innovation is not only a competitive advantage—it is the lifeblood of sustained...

Abstract Organizational structure plays a critical role in how effectively companies respond to customer needs and changing market...

After more than three decades serving as a Chief Financial Officer across public and private companies, I’ve learned that the ability to...

How to Escape Cognitive Ruts and Solve Business Problems with Clarity, Context, and Collaboration By Kevin McDonnell   You’re Not Stuck—Your Thinking Is We all like to believe we’re innovative thinkers. But in reality, most executives fall back on familiar strategies, frameworks, and processes—especially under pressure. Experience becomes a filter. Instead of helping us see problems more clearly, it often narrows our field of vision. Cognitive psychology has a name for this:

Why does a drug company have very high returns? Because developing a new drug is a high-risk venture. A drug must work consistently, have...

Growing up, many of us believed that one great idea was all it took to become successful—the classic American Dream. But in reality, a...

Understanding Direct and Indirect Costs: The Key to Smart Decision-Making To make informed and effective resource allocation decisions,...