Elena sat in the back of the town hall, her notebook open to a page of jagged, disconnected lines. On the stage, the VP of Operations was talking about “synergistic optimization” and “leveraging human capital.” The words felt like sandpaper against her skin. Elena was the Director of Engineering at a top-tier fintech firm. She was “successful” by every traditional metric: she hit her KPIs, her team’s velocity was high, and her bonus was substantial. But as she looked around the room, a cold,...

Leader feeling the "Mass of Memory" in their office. Ever feel like your company is trying to sprint through a swimming pool filled with molasses? 🏊‍♂️ You’ve got the strategy. You’ve got the talent. You’ve even got the fancy new software that cost more than a small island. And yet, every time you try to pivot, it’s like the entire organization is being pulled back by an invisible, giant rubber band. That’s not just "resistance to change." That is the Mass of Memory. At Visionary Consulting,...

Boston Commons in Spring of 2018 "An Earth Day, April 22nd, Preamble" Last Tuesday, I sat across from Maya, a CEO who looked like she’d been trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube in the dark for three weeks straight. She leaned back, rubbed her temples, and let out a sigh that could’ve powered a small wind farm. “Christopher,” she said, “I want to do more than just hit our quarterly targets. I want our leadership to actually matter . But between the supply chain chaos and the 'Operating Model'...