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Institute/Charter v1.8

What thesis. is.

An institute for the future of work.

We take on the biggest problems about work and the worker's place in it, and put that thinking in the hands of every business, so leaders make better decisions for the business and for the people who serve in it.

We put academics, operators, researchers and thought leaders in a room together, distill what they produce, and publish it for everyone.

Work as a system: the relationships among people, organizations, technology, capital, policy and structure, and how they are changing. This is broader than HR.

Convene the room. Distill what it produced. Publish it. Come back to it.

  1. 01

    Convene

    A small working session on one defined problem. Everyone in the room has read the research packet our staff sent ahead, and our researchers are there to testify on the evidence.

  2. 02

    Distill

    What the room produced becomes a thesis: a numbered, contestable claim with its evidence, a counterargument, a confidence level, and what would change our mind.

  3. 03

    Publish

    The thesis goes out to everyone, free to read, with the argument and the uncertainty both in full view.

  4. 04

    Revisit

    Every thesis comes back to the room on a schedule. It stands, it changed under evidence, or it is losing.

Nothing we publish is finished. A thesis is where our thinking stands today, how sure we are, and what would change our mind. We come back to every one of them.

The thesis lifecycle.

  1. Signal

    Notice a shift, tension, or unresolved pattern in how work is actually happening, usually inside a field study or an operator's question.

  2. Question

    Frame the question sharply enough that an answer would change what someone does.

  3. Thesis

    State a clear, contestable proposition and number it. From this point it is on the record.

  4. Evidence

    Test the proposition against research and field work, with methods and limitations published in full.

  5. Counterargument

    Publish the strongest credible case against the thesis, attributed, whether or not we can answer it.

  6. Revision

    Change the thesis when the evidence warrants it. The previous version stays visible with what changed and why.

  7. Impact

    Convene, apply, and observe what changed in the organizations that used the work.

Revision is evidence of rigor, not weakness. A thesis that has never changed has either never been tested or never been read.

How we decide.

  1. Evidence

    Every thesis names its evidence by tier. An anecdote does not count as data.

  2. Counterargument

    No thesis publishes without a counterargument from a named fellow who is not the author.

  3. Confidence

    Confidence is earned. Nothing launches at Strong, and every level carries a written reason.

  4. Review

    Every thesis has a review date. When one is overdue, the page says so.

  5. Rulings

    Senior Fellows rule in rotation. Every thesis has three of them: an author, a challenger and a ruling fellow. Status and confidence change only by a published ruling with its reasoning. The room informs the ruling and does not vote. The founder sets the agenda and leads the questioning, and cannot change a ruling. The Method sets the full rules.

  6. Independence

    No sponsor, partner or fellow touches a thesis outside the process.

  7. Authorship

    No thesis is written by AI. Where AI assisted, we say so. A human owns every claim.

Evidence, ranked.

Every thesis shows its evidence mix. An anecdote sits at the bottom of this list and is labeled as one.

  1. Original institute research
  2. High-quality primary datasets
  3. Peer-reviewed academic research
  4. Credible institutional research
  5. Company data with transparent methodology
  6. Practitioner observation and interviews
  7. Informed hypothesis, labeled as such

One problem. One day. One room.

A small group of fellows, academics, operators, researchers and thought leaders works one defined problem for a day. It is a working session rather than a panel or a keynote.

Everyone arrives having read the research packet our staff sent ahead. Our researchers are in the room to testify on the evidence. Our facilitators run the session so the fellows can concentrate on the argument.

Guests and field-study partners join for the problem they are part of and are named on the work. What comes out of the day becomes a thesis, and the fellows who shaped it put their names on it.

How the work leaves the room.

The room is small so the argument stays sharp. The work is for everyone. What the fellows produce is distilled and published, free to read, in several forms: the full thesis with its evidence and counterargument, short-form arguments that stand on their own, and the research behind both.

Publishing is also the start of the next round. Every thesis takes responses and counterarguments, and a strong one gets answered in public. Anyone can submit a problem or a claim for the fellows to take up, and the record shows what came in and what happened to it.

You do not need a seat at the table to move a thesis.

Bring a problem. Fund a question. Argue in the room.

Bring a problem

Field studies start with an operator's question and a written baseline. If a thesis in the library speaks to your problem, we will test it inside your organization and publish what happened, with your consent on attribution.

Start here

Commission research

Research is commissioned against a thesis, not a conclusion. Funders are disclosed on the page the work appears on and have no editorial role.

Start here

Join a convening

Working sessions are small and built around a live thesis. Seats go to people who will disagree usefully. Apply with the question you would bring.

Start here

Stay with the work.

One argument a week, every revision as it happens, and the questions we have not answered yet. Free to read, open to challenge.