Name: Pragmatic Change
Author: Mark Winter

Don't squeeze harder. Free people up to move where they need to be.

I love the National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs.

The best coaches know: at this point in the season, you can't squeeze your players any more. But what is our temptation as leaders, when the pressure is on and all eyes are on us?

I'm sad one of my all time heroes LeBron James is out. But I'm intrigued by what Mike Brown is building in New York. From being fired four times, to (in his first year with the team) making the Finals!

And now, on the cusp of success in a city with notoriously high expectations...he's making it all about the players.

I'm in my own 'playoff series' right now on a project. I just hope I've positioned us right for success.

What does it mean to lead complex change in 2026?

You know how I'm supposed to open a LinkedIn article. Especially one published on a Monday...who does that?!

Recognisable caricutures from the Boardroom. A leadership vignette. A clever mixture of intruige and just enough panic to make you keep reading...

Instead, I'm compelled to share a gem from my Evernote files, saved during my Masters at the University of Sydney in 2012.

It's from a British physicist named Mark McKergow. He coined a word using Japanese roots because English didn't have one for the concept he needed. It's 2026 and I keep coming back to it.

Because the way most organisations are approaching complex change right now lacks the substance that McKergow was writing about fourteen years ago.

So what does it actually mean to lead complex change in 2026?

I got scared that AI would take my job. Then I read two things that changed everything.

I got scared that AI would take my job.

Which is mildly ironic...given I've spent 20 years helping leaders navigate exactly this kind of moment.

Even more ironic? The tool that scared me, has no emotions whatsoever.
There's something worth sitting with in that juxtaposition.

Then I got sent (by actual humans) two pieces of research that completely reframed what I thought I knew about the AI transition.

The headline finding: we've swapped the motor. We have not redesigned the factory. AI is wholly dependent on organisational change.

Transformation, Change, InnovationMark Winter26 March 2026AI, Complexity, Change

Start small to go big...or go overbudget trying; less IS more when you analyse large and complex projects

If you want to make global impact, then you have to think big. Prof. Bent Flyvbjerg is someone who has spent more time than most, thinking big - mega even. I find his work a fascinating touchstone for my own work with leaders and organisations, especially the ones who need to compete where it's big and complex. Thanks to a recent Sydney Business Insights event, I got brought up to speed on his most recent work "How big things get done", looking at the common failure points and success factors behind over 16,000 major global projects.

LeadershipMark Winter6 April 2023Planning Fallacy, Complexity, AgileComment