BREAKING
Organizations in flux. Old structures cracking, new patterns emerging. The most vulnerable state. And the most opportune.
You attend meetings about transformation. Then you attend meetings about the meetings. Somewhere between the strategy deck and the implementation, everything stalls. Not from malice. From friction.
Some days feel like a startup. Others feel like a government agency. It depends which team you're working with, which initiative you're on, which leader is sponsoring it. The organization is multiple organizations wearing one logo.
Weeks to months. Multiple approval layers. Some fast-track processes exist but most things still need committee blessing.
Caught in weeks, fixed in months. Post-mortems happen but recommendations often die in implementation. Blame is diffuse.
Partially documented. Some teams share; others hoard. New hires can find some answers but key knowledge is still tribal.
Possible but painful. Requires executive sponsorship and multi-quarter timelines. Some areas are modular; most are entangled.
What worked for decades is breaking. The rules that created success are now creating constraints. Legacy systems are buckling under new demands.
Pockets of innovation exist alongside calcified processes. Some teams operate like startups while others operate like museums.
Constant reorganization. Strategy shifts every 18 months. Leaders leave, new ones arrive with different visions. Whiplash is the steady state.
Neither fish nor fowl. Too rigid to compete with field-state insurgents, too adaptive to enjoy particle-state protections.
Those who can navigate ambiguity thrive. The chaos creates space for entrepreneurs inside the organization.
Brazilian banking giant in digital transformation. Legacy branch networks colliding with mobile-first competitors.
Service vs wage pressure, union dynamics. Physical infrastructure meets algorithmic optimization demands.
Energy transition pressure meets multi-decade asset commitments. Old playbook, new game.
Omnichannel scramble. Stores as fulfillment centers. Physical retail trying to become digital.
EV transition while maintaining combustion business. Two companies in one body.
Too slow to out-innovate startups, too fast to out-lobby incumbents. The worst of both worlds.
Endless initiatives that change nothing. Digital transformation becomes an industry of its own.
Best people leave for field-state companies. Those who stay are often those who can't leave.
Investing in both old and new simultaneously. Spreading resources thin across competing futures.
Organizations in transition state typically have 18-24 months before they either break through to field state or calcify into particle state. The window is closing. Most organizations don't make it through. They slide backward into rigidity, not forward into fluidity.
These industries are being disrupted but have enough legacy infrastructure and regulatory protection to resist complete transformation. They're caught between the old world and the new, unable to fully commit to either.