thesis.

Library Theses Research Arguments Field studies Institute People Convenings

The shelf. Seven volumes, one per problem the institute intends to solve.

Three carry an opening argument and a confidence mark. Four are published as the agenda so the framing can be argued with before the work starts. Pull one out to read it.

In focus

003 · Management Is Becoming an Operating System

Numbered positions on how work is changing. Each one sourced, challenged, and reviewed on a published date.

The register is the institute's memory. A thesis can be revised or retired, but it is never deleted; the previous claim stays on the record with what changed and why.

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All · Argued · On the agenda

Original studies that test a thesis against evidence, with methods and limitations published in full.

Research is heavier than commentary. Every study names the thesis it supports or challenges, the sample, and what it does not establish.

Latest

Research 05 · The Agent Ownership Study

Essays, interviews, responses and field notes. Every one a claim someone can disagree with.

Lighter than research, still tied to the library. An argument that moves a thesis is linked to the revision it caused.

This week

Augment, don't replace · Jeff Wald

Theses applied inside real organizations, for two to four quarters, with the outcome reported against a written baseline.

This is where a position earns or loses confidence. Every field study ships with its limitations. Organizations are described, not named, until they consent.

Latest

Moving people, not skills · a 9,000-person manufacturer

How the work moves from signal to impact, and the standards that hold it to account.

Seven stages, from noticing a pattern to measuring what changed in the world. Plus evidence, counterargument, revision and independence standards, published in full.

Fellows and contributors, listed by what they have authored, challenged, and revised.

A profile here is a record of intellectual contribution, not a biography. Challengers are credited alongside authors.

Working sessions built to test a live thesis, with the question published before and the synthesis after.

Small rooms, real disagreement, and a written record of which positions moved.

Next

What is management for when coordination becomes software? · 08 October

Newsletter Search Standards Independence Contact

Convening/Synthesis published

Skills or contexts?

The reskilling budget is the largest line item most organizations spend on the future of work. This session asked whether it is buying the right thing.

Read the synthesis

Date: 12 Jun 2026
Format: Working session · 22 seats · London
Chairs: Erin Eatough · Priya Natarajan
Tests: Thesis 007

What the room will test

The skill survives. The context does not. Training spend should move toward redeployment.

Sent to every seat two weeks before

Thesis 007, Skills Outlive Contexts, v1.0
The Skills Mobility Panel, interim results

Seats are given to people who will disagree usefully

Chief people officerManufacturing, 9,000 people
Head of learningProfessional services
Labor economistPolicy institute
FellowsEatough, Natarajan, Fontaine

What the room concluded

The room accepted the core finding from the panel and rejected the strong version of the implication. Redeployment works where role boundaries permit it; in unionized and regulated environments it does not, and the thesis had been written as if it did.

Thesis 007Revised to v1.1 on 18 June. Claim narrowed to contexts where redeployment is possible. Confidence held at Developing.
Field study 05Commissioned from the discussion. Reported in September with the narrowing confirmed at two of six plants.

Where the room did not agree

Whether the finding holds for early-career workers, who have fewer contexts to be moved between. Unresolved.
Whether 'context' is a measurable construct or a residual. The instrument was revised after the session.

Read the synthesis All convenings