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Everyone knows that “dancing guy” video. One person starts to dance.The crowd is watching him. But then one person joins...
04/25/2026

Everyone knows that “dancing guy” video. One person starts to dance.
The crowd is watching him. But then one person joins.

That second person changes everything. After that, it’s no longer strange to be dancing in the middle of a field. It turns into a movement. It lowers the risk for everyone else to join.

In meetings, it shows up a bit differently. But, the same dynamic is at play. I’ve been running a small field test with consultants and leaders around the world as they lead or experience meetings, real-time.

Amongst a few key questions they’re testing, one is simply:
“Can we sanity check. Are we actually aligned?”

What happens next is surprisingly consistent. The room pauses.
One person says they don’t fully get it. Then someone else says the same.
Within minutes, the conversation shifts. It’s not the question that changes things.

It’s the moment someone says what others were already noticing.
That’s the first follower.

This is an example of what I’m calling Alignment Theater. Where everyone agrees in the moment, but shared understanding hasn’t actually formed.

Organizations say they want speed. Move fast. Be agile. Empower teams.But the approval process often looks like this.Dec...
03/09/2026

Organizations say they want speed. Move fast. Be agile. Empower teams.

But the approval process often looks like this.
Decisions bounce from box to box…
Review → revise → re-review → escalate → revisit.

The structure still concentrates authority while asking teams to move quickly.

That contradiction creates a strange experience inside organizations:
Everyone is told to run.
But the system keeps adding hurdles. Hmmm...

What’s up with that?
What’s the most absurd approval process you’ve seen?

Deep Dive: When progress is real… but something still feels off.On paper, it’s working.But shared clarity is thinning.Tr...
03/07/2026

Deep Dive: When progress is real… but something still feels off.
On paper, it’s working.

But shared clarity is thinning.
Trade-offs stack quietly.
Responsibility concentrates without announcement.

Humor starts doing more work than it should.
Nothing looks wrong.
That’s the problem.

February’s Deep Dive explores what happens when visible progress masks subtle drift.

I call it the Recalibration Gap.
Inside:
• How competence under pressure absorbs strain
• Why “fine” is often a lagging indicator
• What humor reveals when tension has no formal outlet
• How to design recalibration back into tempo before maneuvering room narrows

This is about noticing early signals while you still have room to adjust.
Read the full Deep Dive at Behavingbadlyhq.com

Where does progress look strong but orientation feel thin?

Somewhere along the way, “Let’s think about it” became a luxury item. The room to think feels smaller. Not physically. D...
03/01/2026

Somewhere along the way, “Let’s think about it” became a luxury item. The room to think feels smaller. Not physically. Decision-wise.

There used to be space to test. Space to question. Space to say, “Hold on, let’s look again.”

Now? We announce direction before the edges are visible. We activate initiatives while the ground is still shifting. We commit before the trade-offs are clear.

Momentum kicks in. And suddenly changing course is expensive. Politically. Financially. Reputationally.

That’s structural compression.

It doesn’t look dramatic. It looks efficient.
Until recalibration disappears.

The first step isn’t slowing everything down.
It’s noticing when your adjustment space is collapsing.

Before you commit, ask: Where is our room to recalibrate if new information surfaces?
If the answer is “nowhere,” You’re not choosing direction. You’re managing fallout.

When a system sends two opposing signals at the same time, people don’t relax. They perform. They stay visible. They pro...
02/24/2026

When a system sends two opposing signals at the same time, people don’t relax. They perform. They stay visible. They prove.

That tension?

That’s the squeeze.

The Workplace Squeeze course pilot is open right now. It helps leaders spot these contradictions before they turn into burnout or quiet exits.

You ever leave a meeting thinking:“That was clear.”And then by mid-afternoon, three different interpretations are in mot...
02/20/2026

You ever leave a meeting thinking:
“That was clear.”
And then by mid-afternoon, three different interpretations are in motion?

No drama.
No conflict.
Everyone nodded.
And yet…

Something drifted.

I’ve been noticing this pattern repeatedly.
Agreement is present.
Shared orientation is not.

Under pressure, we process just enough to move forward.
We assume alignment.
We move fast.
We fill in the gaps privately.
And that’s where subtle drift begins.

I’ve started calling this:
“The Alignment Mirage.”

It’s one of the recurring patterns I’m seeing inside modern compression conditions.

Field Note below.
If this feels familiar, where does it tend to show up for you?

If work has started to feel like a professional escape room you didn’t sign up for… this is for you.The Workplace Squeez...
02/18/2026

If work has started to feel like a professional escape room you didn’t sign up for… this is for you.
The Workplace Squeeze Course is now live.

You know that feeling where:
• Every request makes sense
• Every meeting has a purpose
• Every initiative is “important”

This course isn’t about fixing your organization.
It’s not about becoming more resilient.
And it’s definitely not about squeezing more productivity out of yourself.

It’s about orientation.

Because when contradiction becomes constant, something subtle happens.
We adapt. We adjust. We carry tension quietly.
But over time, capacity narrows.
Clarity shortens.
Absurd moments start to feel… normal.

This course gives you language for that.
This pilot course is about interrupting that pattern.

Across five modules, you’ll learn to:
• Spot squeeze conditions in real time
• Recognize the patterns stacking around you
• Use absurdity as data instead of frustration
• Widen your field of choice
• Reclaim your bearings before capacity freezes

It’s a self-directed, non-cohort based course. It’s reflective. It’s practical.

Pilot price: $79 CAD until February 25th.
It includes a 74 page course manual and 7 videos, a 30 minute pilot exchange session with me and a 60 minute live session (optional) with pilot participants that wish to share and integrate their learning.

If you’re a leader navigating complexity or a consultant supporting leaders inside it, come join us. Register at Behaving Badly HQ. https://behavingbadlyhq.com/the-squeeze-course

By Tuesday morning, the decision was made.No one felt great about it.But everyone felt relieved it was over. It seemed l...
01/28/2026

By Tuesday morning, the decision was made.
No one felt great about it.
But everyone felt relieved it was over.

It seemed like a solid decision making process.
There were six Slack threads. Three decks.

A calendar full of “quick syncs.”
Alot of nodding. Alot of typing.
Surely that must be enough.

Yet exactly zero minutes to actually understand the data.
Or the intelligence needed to make sense of what the heck was going on.

People needed some key information they didn’t have.
Context that lived in someone else’s inbox.

Or worse, in Bob’s head.
Bob always had the information.
Bob was just triple-booked.
Bob couldn’t make the meeting.
Bob said he’d follow up.
But there was no time to wait.
Everyone was in back-to-back meetings all day.

The conversation that would have mattered never happened.

So they did what modern work trains them to do.
They decided anyway.
Trusted their gut.
Hoped it would all work out.

🟧 The Brief | Edition No. 007 — Decisions Before Understanding is out

This week’s Brief documents a familiar workplace pattern: individuals and teams being forced to make consequential decisions without the time, context, or shared understanding needed to make sense of what actually matters.

It examines how urgency replaces orientation, how decisiveness can become a performance, and why responsibility quietly collapses back onto individuals long before understanding has a chance to form.

If you’ve ever been asked to decide first and make sense of it later, this one’s for you. https://lnkd.in/gDe5hAek

There’s a blind spot at the heart of modern work. It explains a lot of the absurdity we’ve learned to live with.The 2026...
01/21/2026

There’s a blind spot at the heart of modern work. It explains a lot of the absurdity we’ve learned to live with.

The 2026 Workplace Absurdities report has now landed.

After two decades of listening to leaders, teams, and organizations, I kept hearing the same thing from very capable people:

“We’re doing the work. We’re adapting. We’re delivering.
So why does it feel like we’re constantly pushing uphill?”

That question became the core inquiry of the report. It names patterns that quietly stabilize modern work while making it harder to navigate from the inside. It surfaces a central blind spot, along with a set of ironic and paradoxical dynamics that shape day-to-day experience at work.

It also offers practical reflection questions, design considerations, and examples of how people and organizations are already experimenting with new ways of restoring orientation and capacity under real conditions.

Today I’m sharing a 26-page Overview to the full report. It’s designed for people who want the findings, logic, and diagrams without reading all 70+ pages in the full report.

If you’ve felt:
– busy but not settled
– capable but oddly constrained
– productive yet unclear what actually matters

This is for you. Looking forward to our conversations on the topic.

Full report available in the subscriber archive at www.behavingbadlyhq.com.

Somewhere, a process is brokenBut don’t worry.Someone adaptable will handle it.
01/17/2026

Somewhere, a process is broken
But don’t worry.

Someone adaptable will handle it.

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