The Stagnation Assassin Blog
Weapons-Grade Wisdom
Short Slaughters, Permanent Profits
Start Here: My Most-Read Articles
The Stagnation Encyclopedia: Why Is Your Company Dying While You Celebrate Success?
The warning signs most executive teams miss, in one reference.
The Three Essential Leadership Behaviors That Make or Break Organizational Transformation
Three behaviors that quietly sabotage change efforts, and how to master them.
HOT System Transformation vs. Kotter's 8-Step Change Model
A 90-day rapid turnaround approach compared with the classic 8-step model.
The 3-Question Transformation Leader Test
Three questions that show who can actually run a turnaround.
What's the “70% Rule” and Why Does It Work?
Decide before you have every fact, and stop paying for delay.
What's the Difference Between Activity and Productivity?
The audit that turns busyness into measurable impact.
Drowning in Data but
Starving for Strategic Solutions?
Risk Management is a $35.9 Billion Scam (And 6 Other Corporate Cons Killing Your Company)
I've walked into Fortune 500 companies drowning in risk frameworks, agile ceremonies, and innovation labs — and watched them get […] Read More
The 46% Performance Crater: Why Your Star Employees Become Expensive Failures (And How to Build Systems That Multiply Talent)
Harvard's Groysberg tracked over 1,000 star Wall Street analysts and found that when they switched firms, performance cratered 46% in […] Read More
The Cult of Agile: Why Smart People Believe Stupid Things
The numbers on Agile are not ambiguous: 96% failure rate, 268% higher project failure than traditional approaches, 67% of transformations […] Read More
The Innovation Lab Graveyard: Why Your $50 Million R&D Investment Produces Nothing But Patents
What Is Innovation Theater, and How Big Is the Problem? What Did Innovation Labs Get Wrong About Skunk Works? What […] Read More
The Wells Fargo Paradox: When 84% Customer Satisfaction Hides $3 Billion in Fraud
Wells Fargo was simultaneously #1 in customer satisfaction among large banks and operating what federal prosecutors called a "criminal enterprise" […] Read More
Your Business Strategy Is Mathematically Proven to Fail: 3 Statistics That Expose Why
Why Do Best Practices Fail the Companies That Follow Them? What Does the Fortune 500 Record Actually Show? Why Doesn't […] Read More
What Happens in a 7:30 AM War Room Meeting?
I've run the 7:30 AM War Room in dozens of companies — struggling manufacturers, tech firms on the edge of […] Read More
What role does technology play in the HOT System?
A board approved a $15 million ERP implementation. Eighteen months and $22 million later, we had a state-of-the-art system perfectly […] Read More
What’s the difference between activity and productivity?
Take 1 — The Stagnation Slaughters I walked into a technology company where everyone worked 60-hour weeks. The parking lot […] Read More
The 7-Step Orthodoxy Smashing Process
Why Do Industry Orthodoxies Stay Invisible? What Three Tests Expose an Invisible Orthodoxy? How Do You Classify the Orthodoxies You […] Read More
Why do you say “transformation is a capability, not an event”?
Take 1 — The Stagnation Slaughters I sat across from a CEO who had just "completed" his company's third major […] Read More
Can the HOT System Work During Economic Downturns? Crisis as Catalyst
Take 1 — The Disruptor's Manifesto I bought a plastics manufacturing company in early 2020. COVID hit within weeks. Supply […] Read More