The Pattern
Five principles across seven transformations
Every organization is different. But the patterns that drive successful transformation are remarkably consistent. Here's what I've learned.
Assess Before Acting
The temptation to act quickly—to demonstrate impact, to reorganize, to fix obvious problems—must be resisted. Acting without understanding creates more problems than it solves and damages the trust that everything else depends on.
How This Shows Up
- First 90 days focused on learning, not changing
- Systematic stakeholder interviews before strategy
- Perception gaps identified and addressed explicitly
- Findings reviewed with teams before presentation to leadership
"I spent my first three months just listening. By the time I made changes, people understood why—and they helped make them work."
— Cengage SVP, 2019Trust Before Technology
Without trust, there is no teamwork. Without teamwork, there is no sustained delivery. Trust is earned through supporting teams, creating space for success and failure, pushing decisions to the right levels, and holding yourself accountable first.
How This Shows Up
- Credibility built through technical depth, not just titles
- Business partnership through transparency, not insulation
- Leadership team alignment before organizational change
- No surprises—findings shared with teams before leadership
"Too often technology leaders hold information too tight, creating a black box that breeds distrust. When stakeholders understand what technology is doing and why, alignment follows."
— TRUST FrameworkFoundation Before Features
The most sophisticated AI agent is useless if people don't understand how to work with it. The most powerful platform is worthless if the team can't deploy to it reliably. Fix structural issues before adding capabilities.
How This Shows Up
- CI/CD and DevOps maturity before new feature development
- Team health and process clarity before technology changes
- Governance frameworks established before they're needed
- Integration depth over feature breadth
"We spent six months on nothing but deployment pipeline and team structure. Boring work. But when we started building features, we moved three times faster than before."
— Cengage Core Platforms, 2018Measure For Learning
Metrics can be used as a carrot, a stick, or both. The way data is used shapes organizational culture more than what data is collected. High-performing organizations use metrics for learning and improvement, not punishment.
How This Shows Up
- DORA metrics as conversation starters, not performance reviews
- Blameless postmortems that drive systemic improvement
- Teams own their own metrics and set their own targets
- Leading indicators over lagging indicators
"When metrics are bad, what happens? If the answer is blame, you'll never get accurate data. If the answer is curiosity, you'll find the real problems."
— Engineering Effectiveness workScale Deliberately
What works at 40 people breaks at 300. Global teams require explicit design—communication structures, clear ownership, deliberate culture-building. The approach that succeeded in one context must be adapted, not copied, to the next.
How This Shows Up
- Organizational structure that mirrors system architecture
- Communication patterns designed, not assumed
- Local autonomy with global alignment
- Explicit handoff protocols across time zones
"Every time I scaled a team, I had to unlearn something that worked before. The instincts that made me successful at 40 people actively hurt us at 300."
— Cengage global expansionSee this pattern in action
Seven transformations over 25 years—each one applying these principles.