Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: September 25, 2026
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News, articles, books, podcasts, and videos about how to make the workplace better.
Today's mixtape looks at leading through constant change, including an HBR piece arguing that transformation works better when leaders adjust the destination as conditions change instead of sticking to a fixed plan. He also covers a Quality Digest warning about GenAI agreeing with flawed quality work, Cadillac F1 replacing Graeme Lowdon days after an interview about his leadership approach, and my recent post on why clinicians stop speaking up when concerns go nowhere.
Operational Excellence, Improvement, and Innovation
Your transformation program doesn't need an endpoint
Count me as one person who used to believe that transformation needed a clear start and end point. “What are we transforming to?” I would often ask. I mean, you can't have a problem statement without a target state, right? The challenge is that things change so rapidly that any detailed roadmap, let alone a destination, becomes so destabilized that it's unhelpful.
Side rant: this is why I hate the “roadmap” analogy and language that orgs still use. First, who uses an actual roadmap when driving a long distance anymore? Second, roadmaps, both corporate and automotive, fail to reflect dynamic changes in the environment, like detours and traffic. “Using a GPS” is a much more useful analogy for modern transformation (and travel).
Evgeny Kaganer and Christoph Loch contrast organizational transformations at DBS Bank and General Electric to show the value of pivoting the destination based on new conditions in the HBR article Transformation Should Be a Learning Journey.
Transforming without a static roadmap
GenAI may be making your quality problem worse
GenAI is ubiquitous in most workplaces now. It can be very helpful. Sometimes too helpful. GenAI can amplify the work of a great employee, but it can also amplify and agree with the work of a less-than-great employee. Sycophancy is a common challenge with AI, and this can become a problem when applying GenAI to critical-to-quality processes and auditing. Quality Digest warns that Quality Digest warns that AI may be making your quality problem worse.
Creating a Culture of Improvement
How to keep your team aligned during times of uncertainty
Aligning organizations and teams has always been challenging, but it used to be a lot easier. The days of setting a five-year strategy, cascading it, and going on autopilot have been gone for a while, and they are certainly not coming back.
In Fast Company, hear from 25 leaders on what's working to maintain alignment during these times of increasing uncertainty.
No one speaking up? It isn't fear–it's futility.
When psychological safety is lacking, it is easy to assume that people are afraid to speak up. But what if it's really that they just think there's no point in speaking up? How many times does a concern have to go nowhere before someone stops raising it? Over on Lean Blog, a survey of 21,050 clinicians reveals that futility is the real culprit in a culture where no one speaks up.
What should organizations do? Wellness programs and recognition are not enough. Leaders need to listen and mobilize resources to solve real problems.
Great leadership philosophy. Results still matter.
Another mixtape, another Formula 1 leadership story, but this one comes with a twist. In an August interview, Cadillac's Graeme Lowdon explained how he built F1's newest team on structure, focus, and energy, and why “if you only hire people who say yes, you will inevitably finish last.” Three days later, Cadillac replaced him. Scoreless after 11 races, the team decided it needed a change. Is it possible to lead the right way and still lose the job? I think so, and it's worth asking what “time will tell” really means when time runs out.
Coaching – Developing Self & Others
AI. Continuous transformation. Hybrid workplaces. A lot has changed at work, and so have the rules of how to get ahead. Check out what The Wall Street Journal says are the 24 new rules for succeeding at work. Number 24 is my favourite of the bunch.
The Next Big Idea Club's must-read books for September 2026
Wondering what to read this fall? Check out these book recommendations from the Next Big Idea Club. The one that caught my eye was The Knot: Problems Can Be Solved by Seth Godin. Ordered.
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