Jon Smart
@jon.bvssh.com
Better Value Sooner Safer Happier #BVSSH
Lead Author of ‘Sooner Safer Happier’, winner of Business Book award in Leadership category.
soonersaferhappier.com
Lead Author of ‘Sooner Safer Happier’, winner of Business Book award in Leadership category.
soonersaferhappier.com
Pinned
Optimise your approach to the work, to the domain of the work.
Ask the question: "How many times have we done this exact thing, with these exact people, in this exact context?".
If the answer is lots, then you can optimise for knowability. You're on the right-hand side, in the ordered domains.
Ask the question: "How many times have we done this exact thing, with these exact people, in this exact context?".
If the answer is lots, then you can optimise for knowability. You're on the right-hand side, in the ordered domains.
February 11, 2026 at 11:20 AM
Optimise your approach to the work, to the domain of the work.
Ask the question: "How many times have we done this exact thing, with these exact people, in this exact context?".
If the answer is lots, then you can optimise for knowability. You're on the right-hand side, in the ordered domains.
Ask the question: "How many times have we done this exact thing, with these exact people, in this exact context?".
If the answer is lots, then you can optimise for knowability. You're on the right-hand side, in the ordered domains.
Join Maria Muir, Myles Ogilvie and me at the Sooner Safer Happier (BVSSH) APAC meetup event on 18th Feb (4pm EST, 9pm GMT), 19th Feb (8am AEDT) to share and explore:
▶️ Key learnings from 2025: challenges, changes and ninja moves
▶️ What this means for 2026
▶️ What steps you can take
▶️ Q&A
▶️ Key learnings from 2025: challenges, changes and ninja moves
▶️ What this means for 2026
▶️ What steps you can take
▶️ Q&A
February 10, 2026 at 12:17 PM
Join Maria Muir, Myles Ogilvie and me at the Sooner Safer Happier (BVSSH) APAC meetup event on 18th Feb (4pm EST, 9pm GMT), 19th Feb (8am AEDT) to share and explore:
▶️ Key learnings from 2025: challenges, changes and ninja moves
▶️ What this means for 2026
▶️ What steps you can take
▶️ Q&A
▶️ Key learnings from 2025: challenges, changes and ninja moves
▶️ What this means for 2026
▶️ What steps you can take
▶️ Q&A
If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.
The more cars on the road, the slower they go.
Limit work in progress.
Stop starting, start finishing.
#BVSSH
The more cars on the road, the slower they go.
Limit work in progress.
Stop starting, start finishing.
#BVSSH
February 9, 2026 at 9:50 AM
If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.
The more cars on the road, the slower they go.
Limit work in progress.
Stop starting, start finishing.
#BVSSH
The more cars on the road, the slower they go.
Limit work in progress.
Stop starting, start finishing.
#BVSSH
An entry for the Rainhill Trials in 1829, a competition for steam locomotives on the world's first inter-city railway, Liverpool to Manchester.
Nearly, but not quite...
Nearly, but not quite...
February 6, 2026 at 9:50 AM
An entry for the Rainhill Trials in 1829, a competition for steam locomotives on the world's first inter-city railway, Liverpool to Manchester.
Nearly, but not quite...
Nearly, but not quite...
In the previous 4 Industrial Revolutions work was mostly repetitive and *knowable*, with people as cogs in a machine, with narrow division of labour, work passing and detailed work orders coming from the Planning Department.
February 5, 2026 at 11:22 AM
In the previous 4 Industrial Revolutions work was mostly repetitive and *knowable*, with people as cogs in a machine, with narrow division of labour, work passing and detailed work orders coming from the Planning Department.
Intelligent failure. Fail (learn) faster to succeed sooner.
Intelligent failure is quick, unique, small, cheap and safe. It is possible to fail forwards. We learn and adapt from it.
Done well, it makes us stronger, more robust, more antifragile.
Intelligent failure is quick, unique, small, cheap and safe. It is possible to fail forwards. We learn and adapt from it.
Done well, it makes us stronger, more robust, more antifragile.
February 3, 2026 at 11:53 AM
Intelligent failure. Fail (learn) faster to succeed sooner.
Intelligent failure is quick, unique, small, cheap and safe. It is possible to fail forwards. We learn and adapt from it.
Done well, it makes us stronger, more robust, more antifragile.
Intelligent failure is quick, unique, small, cheap and safe. It is possible to fail forwards. We learn and adapt from it.
Done well, it makes us stronger, more robust, more antifragile.
From PMO to Value Realization Office (VRO).
▶️ Portfolio OKR controls (not too many Os or KRs, alignment over cascade, nested OKRs with parents, transparent, well-written outcome hypotheses)
▶️ Portfolio OKR controls (not too many Os or KRs, alignment over cascade, nested OKRs with parents, transparent, well-written outcome hypotheses)
February 2, 2026 at 9:50 AM
From PMO to Value Realization Office (VRO).
▶️ Portfolio OKR controls (not too many Os or KRs, alignment over cascade, nested OKRs with parents, transparent, well-written outcome hypotheses)
▶️ Portfolio OKR controls (not too many Os or KRs, alignment over cascade, nested OKRs with parents, transparent, well-written outcome hypotheses)
January 30, 2026 at 9:50 AM
As a leader wanting to optimise outcomes, how should I behave?
Align, Act, Reflect, Adapt (AARA)
🎯 Align: be clear on the Why and the direction (measurable outcome hypotheses). Limit Work In Progress.
Align, Act, Reflect, Adapt (AARA)
🎯 Align: be clear on the Why and the direction (measurable outcome hypotheses). Limit Work In Progress.
January 29, 2026 at 9:50 AM
As a leader wanting to optimise outcomes, how should I behave?
Align, Act, Reflect, Adapt (AARA)
🎯 Align: be clear on the Why and the direction (measurable outcome hypotheses). Limit Work In Progress.
Align, Act, Reflect, Adapt (AARA)
🎯 Align: be clear on the Why and the direction (measurable outcome hypotheses). Limit Work In Progress.
Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM) and Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s concept of
antifragility can be combined by treating VSM as the structural viability baseline and
antifragility as a dynamic performance criterion under uncertainty.
antifragility can be combined by treating VSM as the structural viability baseline and
antifragility as a dynamic performance criterion under uncertainty.
January 28, 2026 at 9:50 AM
Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM) and Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s concept of
antifragility can be combined by treating VSM as the structural viability baseline and
antifragility as a dynamic performance criterion under uncertainty.
antifragility can be combined by treating VSM as the structural viability baseline and
antifragility as a dynamic performance criterion under uncertainty.
Leading and lagging measures are a critical data feedback loop when testing an outcome hypothesis, enabling us to reflect and adapt. Leading measures are particularly important as they should give us an early indication as to whether we're heading in the right direction.
January 27, 2026 at 11:23 AM
Leading and lagging measures are a critical data feedback loop when testing an outcome hypothesis, enabling us to reflect and adapt. Leading measures are particularly important as they should give us an early indication as to whether we're heading in the right direction.
January 26, 2026 at 9:50 AM
Every organisation is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.
If you are happy with the results you are getting, don't change.
If you are not, do you know what you want to optimise for?
Do you have measures (leading and lagging) for those outcomes?
If you are happy with the results you are getting, don't change.
If you are not, do you know what you want to optimise for?
Do you have measures (leading and lagging) for those outcomes?
January 23, 2026 at 9:50 AM
Every organisation is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.
If you are happy with the results you are getting, don't change.
If you are not, do you know what you want to optimise for?
Do you have measures (leading and lagging) for those outcomes?
If you are happy with the results you are getting, don't change.
If you are not, do you know what you want to optimise for?
Do you have measures (leading and lagging) for those outcomes?
Why we work the way we do today, how we got here: on the left is an Instruction Card for sewing in sleeves issued on 15th July 1920. The steps are standardised and atomic, with times to the second.
January 22, 2026 at 9:50 AM
Why we work the way we do today, how we got here: on the left is an Instruction Card for sewing in sleeves issued on 15th July 1920. The steps are standardised and atomic, with times to the second.
Communities of Practice (CoPs) are a powerful way to foster continuous learning, connect passionate innovators, and create momentum for change. They enable champions to self-identify themselves and form inclusive social groups that anyone can opt into.
January 21, 2026 at 11:24 AM
Communities of Practice (CoPs) are a powerful way to foster continuous learning, connect passionate innovators, and create momentum for change. They enable champions to self-identify themselves and form inclusive social groups that anyone can opt into.
Improve via emergence, learning by doing, visualising the system of work, perfectly imperfect, within guardrails.
Not by endlessly iterating a Powerpoint deck.
#BVSSH
Not by endlessly iterating a Powerpoint deck.
#BVSSH
January 20, 2026 at 11:38 AM
Improve via emergence, learning by doing, visualising the system of work, perfectly imperfect, within guardrails.
Not by endlessly iterating a Powerpoint deck.
#BVSSH
Not by endlessly iterating a Powerpoint deck.
#BVSSH
The mindset behind the introduction of the Charting of an Organisation (Org Chart) was predominantly about authority and who took orders from who. The 'reporting line' in the org chart, historically, has been an 'ordering line'.
January 19, 2026 at 9:50 AM
The mindset behind the introduction of the Charting of an Organisation (Org Chart) was predominantly about authority and who took orders from who. The 'reporting line' in the org chart, historically, has been an 'ordering line'.
The current state for many organisations is functional role-based silos with work passing, like a relay race. This is how we have worked, at scale, since 1771 with the introduction of the first Industrial Revolution.
January 16, 2026 at 9:50 AM
The current state for many organisations is functional role-based silos with work passing, like a relay race. This is how we have worked, at scale, since 1771 with the introduction of the first Industrial Revolution.
Value Centres are nested and networked. No single person knows how to make a pencil end-to-end, millions of people are involved and there is no central planning.
January 15, 2026 at 9:50 AM
Value Centres are nested and networked. No single person knows how to make a pencil end-to-end, millions of people are involved and there is no central planning.
Everything has a flip side. Something can be optimal or sub-optimal (not enough or too much), unique to the unique context and moment in time. Anything can be done well, or done badly (where the definition of good and bad is unique in context).
January 14, 2026 at 1:14 PM
Everything has a flip side. Something can be optimal or sub-optimal (not enough or too much), unique to the unique context and moment in time. Anything can be done well, or done badly (where the definition of good and bad is unique in context).
The world's first known org chart dates from 1855 and has the company directors at the bottom, not the top! It is drawn to represent a plant, a living organism, with the railroad lines representing branches of the organism and people as flowers, or nodes, of the plant.
January 13, 2026 at 11:28 AM
The world's first known org chart dates from 1855 and has the company directors at the bottom, not the top! It is drawn to represent a plant, a living organism, with the railroad lines representing branches of the organism and people as flowers, or nodes, of the plant.
3Ms of OKRs: Mindset, Mission and Measurement.
Mindset: Emergent over Deterministic. Empowering.
Mission: Outcome over Output. Inspirational.
Measurement: Movement & Behaviour. Leading & Lagging.
An OK OKR needs all three.
#BVSSH
Mindset: Emergent over Deterministic. Empowering.
Mission: Outcome over Output. Inspirational.
Measurement: Movement & Behaviour. Leading & Lagging.
An OK OKR needs all three.
#BVSSH
January 12, 2026 at 9:50 AM
3Ms of OKRs: Mindset, Mission and Measurement.
Mindset: Emergent over Deterministic. Empowering.
Mission: Outcome over Output. Inspirational.
Measurement: Movement & Behaviour. Leading & Lagging.
An OK OKR needs all three.
#BVSSH
Mindset: Emergent over Deterministic. Empowering.
Mission: Outcome over Output. Inspirational.
Measurement: Movement & Behaviour. Leading & Lagging.
An OK OKR needs all three.
#BVSSH
Ask yourself the question, "how many times have we done this exact thing, with these exact people, in this exact context?".
If the answer is never, optimise for emergence (unknowability).
If the answer is never, optimise for emergence (unknowability).
January 9, 2026 at 9:50 AM
Ask yourself the question, "how many times have we done this exact thing, with these exact people, in this exact context?".
If the answer is never, optimise for emergence (unknowability).
If the answer is never, optimise for emergence (unknowability).
Unique change is unknowable and emergent. It is not knowable and deterministic.
The only thing that is predictable is unpredictability.
Optimise your approach to the work, to the type of work.
The only thing that is predictable is unpredictability.
Optimise your approach to the work, to the type of work.
January 8, 2026 at 9:50 AM
Unique change is unknowable and emergent. It is not knowable and deterministic.
The only thing that is predictable is unpredictability.
Optimise your approach to the work, to the type of work.
The only thing that is predictable is unpredictability.
Optimise your approach to the work, to the type of work.