In Parallel

“70% of change initiatives fail.” But what if the problem isn't the strategy, but the lack of accountability? After 40 years working across government agencies, nonprofits, and public institutions, Richard H. Carson, PhD, MPA has seen firsthand why organizational change so often falls short. His takeaway? Real change requires more than a good plan. It requires clear ownership, long-term commitment, and accountability for getting things done. Without those, even the best strategies risk becoming reports that sit on a shelf. In the latest episode of The Coordination Tax, Richard joins our co-founder Kristian Luoma to discuss what it actually takes to make organizational change stick, why traditional change management often falls short, and what leaders should do differently. Watch the full conversation: https://lnkd.in/dZ-ay7TJ

How do you know when urgency has become the default way your company operates? Emails answered within minutes. Messages on weekends. Calls at all hours. Raised voices. Interruptions. Everything treated as if it needs an answer right now. Jennifer Recla argues that these aren’t separate behaviours. They’re symptoms of the same thing: an urgency mindset. And when leaders operate this way, it doesn’t stay with them. It shapes how the entire team communicates, prioritises and works. Jennifer joined our co-founder Kristian Luoma on The Coordination Tax to talk about the mindset behind organisational chaos, why being constantly responsive isn’t the same as being effective, and what leaders can do differently. Watch the full conversation on YouTube, or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts — links in comments.

Two books. One argument. And the ending is still being written. Vol. I — The Coordination Tax looks at why coordination breaks down as companies scale — why systems fall behind reality, knowledge disappears, and more tools don’t necessarily fix it. Vol. II — Shared Context looks at what comes next — what changes when decisions, priorities, commitments and changes become living context, continuously available to the people and AI that need it. And the timing matters. Gartner describes AI context platforms as an emerging market for infrastructure that constructs, governs and delivers reusable context to AI agents. By 2028, Gartner expects the majority of enterprises running AI agents in production to standardise on a dedicated context platform. The question is increasingly becoming not whether AI needs context, but what that context should actually know. That’s the argument these two books explore. Both are short. Both are free to read. And when you reach the end of Shared Context, you’ll find twelve questions and twelve blank pages. Those pages are for you. Access link to the books in the comments ⬇️

There’s not much point becoming a better swordsman when someone else just brought a gun. Alberto Torres uses a scene from Indiana Jones to explain what technological disruption actually feels like. The uncomfortable part isn’t that what worked before suddenly becomes bad. You might be exceptionally good at it. The problem is that the rules have changed around you. And when that happens, getting even better at the old game won’t necessarily help. Alberto joined our co-founder Kristian Luoma on The Coordination Tax to talk about technological disruption, AI, and what it takes for organisations to adapt when yesterday’s advantages stop being enough. 🎧 Watch the full conversation on YouTube — link in comments ↓

Your company’s knowledge is its most valuable data. Treat it that way. In Parallel gives your teams high-quality meeting notes and transcripts — and turns what happens in those meetings into living business context for your people and AI. Decisions, priorities and changes don’t disappear into transcripts. They become part of an always up-to-date picture of what’s happening across the business, ready when your teams need to understand, decide or act. And all that knowledge stays exactly where it should: under your control and in the EU.

“Identify the decisions that require the most meetings and approvals — and ask yourself why the team doing the work can't make that decision.” That's the one thing Olivia Montgomery, PMP — principal analyst at Dataframe and former Gartner researcher — tells every leader to do this week. Get uncomfortable with it. Really challenge it. You might think you have the most information. But do you really? And is making that decision the best use of your time? Most companies respond to complexity by adding meetings and approval layers. Olivia argues the opposite: the people closest to the work usually have the context, and every step up the ladder adds distance from the reality on the ground. Olivia joined our co-founder Kristian Luoma on The Coordination Tax to talk about layer design, meeting hygiene, and where decisions actually belong. Watch the full conversation on YouTube — link in the comments.