This is the first of a two part issue. If you already know our history and are more interested in where we are going - then the next newsletter is for you.

‘They’ have their CRM. Where’s my VRM?1

Before you get too excited - sorry this is not about that - but - the question has been my North Star for a couple of decades. It’s the itch that ‘Systems of Record’ couldn’t scratch, and the reason I spent my career working as a translator in rooms where the wrong problems were being solved with clinical precision.

The Translator in the Room.

My job was simple ..

Translate.

• For technologists - competing to build smarter mousetraps and needing to explain themselves to ‘the market’.

• For people - realising that the real problem isn't catching mice, it's that nobody's talking about why the mice are there in the first place.

I lived in that gap. I learned to speak both languages and discovered that software companies are brilliant at “solving the wrong problem really well”.2

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It was a sign of the times - but they optimised for efficiency. For capture. For storage. For control. Systems of Record, designed to document what happened yesterday so they could save money today. And they locked you in. Built moats around the data. Made you dependent. That’s where the money was - still is for some. And at the time that was the right thing to do.

But to remix a couple of metaphors - if all you have is a hammer, by the time you get to where the puck is going, the problem might not be a nail anymore.

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I also learned that you can only save up to 100% of what you have BUT on the flip side - The Business Equation makes clear that there are no such limits to growth.

These learnings contributed to the foundation of ‘John2.0’ - People First. Process Second. Technology Third. And by ‘people’ I mean all people - customers, staff, vendors, partners, members … and knowing what each person needs to ‘improve their lot’ - not what the system wants to capture and a series of ‘truths’ informed how to build these new systems.

When I left People First ‘behind’ to start PHI⑊PIN3, it was only the name that changed. The foundation, the thinking, the frameworks all remained and are in constant use and now we build solutions on those principles. Not with a new tech stack. No reinvention of the wheel. Definitely not throwing away what works and absolutely building value through a three step process.

Websites appear as outcomes not as the project. Solutions emerge from solving real problems, not from feature roadmaps. We move fast, faster than most. But every piece serves a purpose. Nothing exists for its own sake.

And here’s the thing:

The sunset in the rear view is clear. Yesterday is over and tomorrow is a new day.

Will it be exactly the same as yesterday? No. So why are you doing the same thing?

Want to talk more?

Better Call John

Most organisations are optimised for a world that no longer exists - built for control and standardisation and competing in one that demands responsiveness and fluidity. You can’t patch engagement onto record; the invisible architecture has to shift, and that requires the same structured thinking that got you here, just pointed differently. I published 8 new pages about this over the weekend - but what follows is a more playful approach to the framework.

I Can See Clearly Now

Can you? You have strategy documents, cultural initiatives, leadership programs, performance metrics … you name it … all the pieces from different jigsaws and no picture to even help you understand that you are on a hiding to nothing.

The Business Equation is running - because it always is. You are transforming core resources through process and technology, guided by human intent, into something others recognise as value. Just like every other organisation on the planet.

Are you tuning it or fighting it❓

The Times They Are A-Changin’

Dylan nailed it decades ago, but still we cling to ‘Systems of Record’ built for ‘The Age of Reason’.

Optimized for efficiency, control, predictability. They work brilliantly if the world stays still. It doesn’t. ‘Customer Effective Demand Networks’ have beaten out ‘Producer Efficient Supply Chains’. Your customers expect ‘Engagement’, not ‘Transactions’. Your staff expect ‘Agency, not ‘Instruction’.

The answer❓’Systems of Engagement’

Most organisations intuitively feel this - but perhaps can’t articulate it - and what the hell is a ‘system of engagement’ anyway. So we know it. Feel it even. But we can't move toward it because the foundations are built wrong.

So where do we actually start❓

It’s About the Journey

The sequence determines everything. People First - then Process - then Technology. That adage has been in play for decades, and still we don't understand that it's not just the words. It's the order.

Look around and watch organisations implement technology expecting people to adapt. Trying to change culture and expecting strategy to follow. Build and rebuild structure thinking that the work will fit.

It’s all backwards.

Structured Thought is not a methodology you implement. It's a practice. A way of bringing coherence to complexity by understanding which layer is actually broken.

Get the sequence right and each layer amplifies the next. Get it wrong and you’re fighting yourself while pretending you’re progressing.

Your task determines what structure you actually need, the structure enables your people to think and respond and those people enable you to use technology as a tool, not as a cage.

What happens when you get it right❓

The Space Between

If music is the space between the notes - work is the space between the boxes and when the sequence is right, something shifts. Not because you added more tools. Because you stopped letting them drift.

Your work becomes clear. People understand what problem they’re solving. They can see how their effort connects. They have agency to make decisions without asking permission.

Systems of Engagement start working because they’re built on a foundation that actually exists.

Data starts to be led by people, not leading people. You measure what signals matter. You stop optimising for transaction volume and start optimising for engagement quality.

When people have clarity and agency, they make better decisions faster.

Can you feel it happening❓

Comfortably Numb

We know something’s wrong. We feel it. But we’re comfortable in the numbness.

So we double down on what we know. More frameworks. More meetings. More measurement. We add layers instead of asking which layer is actually broken.

Why do we keep doing this❓

Message In A Bottle

The message is there. It’s been there the whole time, but what you read depends on where you’re standing.

• To operations: Your processes are fighting how work actually happens.

• To strategy: Your strategy isn’t landing because people can’t see it.

• To culture: Your initiatives are disconnected from the actual work.

• To technology: Your tools sit unused because the foundation isn’t built.

Same organisation. Same broken architecture. Different message.

People intuitively feel this. But there's no structure to build agreement on what it means. So they pull the bottle in different directions and the message gets ignored.

• Operations wants to fix process.

• Strategy wants to fix communication.

• Culture wants to fix engagement.

• Technology wants to fix adoption.

All diagnosing the same patient. All treating different symptoms. Nobody examining the root cause. But, once you see it, the message becomes clear. Not different messages from different angles. One message, finally legible to everyone. That’s when things change.

What happens next❓

People

Your data is led. Your people are first. Not as a slogan. Actually first.

You stop optimizing every system for measurement and control. You start optimizing for clarity and agency.

You invest in understanding your actual task. Then you give people the tools, context, and trust to solve it.

You sense what customers actually need. You let your people think instead of follow.

When you run the Business Equation this way - with clarity at the foundation, structure enabling people, and people enabling technology - the equation stops being something you manage and becomes something that reinforces itself.

But will you let it❓

Where Are We Now

The gap is real. Systems of Record built for yesterday. Systems of Engagement demanded by today. The collision is happening.

But here’s the thing about the message in the bottle. You can read the words, understand them, feel the weight of them. And still choose not to act. Living in your numbness.

Most organisations have already pulled the bottle from the water. They’ve read the message. They know the sequence matters. They know which layer is broken.

And yet.

The question isn’t whether you understand the problem anymore. It’s whether you’re willing to stop everything else to fix it.

Because this takes focus. This takes choice. This takes you - actually present, making actual decisions, staying integrated across functions instead of delegating it all away.

Are you ready❓

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My Way

Music is my core and finds its way into everything. Meanwhile, I've published a series of pages on the main site walking through these challenges in detail.

This newsletter tells that story differently - through the lens of music and to remind us all that there is no single way. No absolute.

Paul Anka writes the song. Frank makes it famous. Sid turns it upside down.

That’s the point of the music I chose. Famous songs and unknowns. Covers and originals. Sometimes the covers are better than the original because they contain messages you don’t feel until someone else plays them. One of those videos shows us that everyone has a voice. No matter how insignifcant you might feel - the fact is that anyone can change the future. (Spoiler alert - it’s the Dave Mathews song.)

And then there’s the mix. Because if you do it exactly the same, what’s the point?

Life is a mix. It’s always different. Transformation is just the same.

Your organisation right now is a cover of something that used to work. A remix of systems built for yesterday, trying to make them sing in a world that’s moved on.

Those pages on the web site aren’t instructions. They’re the score.

What you do with them, how you play them, who you bring into the performance, which notes you emphasise, that’s your remix. That’s where the real work happens.

If you reached this far and want to talk more - I certainly do.

Let’s set up some time to explore how Structured Thought can be used to help your business transition into the ‘Age of Experience’.

Bonus: who played the song that inspired the title of this newsletter❓

Let's Book Some Time

I’ll tell you❗️