Work with us
A scoped engagement that helps you see the whole system you are trying to change, find the moves you have missed, and make your change cohere.
We work alongside you. We do not do it for you.
What does working with us look like
You come to us with something major you are trying to change and a sense that you are stuck.
We help you zoom out, map the reality your problem sits in, and find where your effort is hitting a roadblock or being undone.
This is not a single workshop. It is an iterative process, run as a series of sessions with the right people, that continues until the picture holds together. All of it is built with you, not delivered to you.
The Three Phases
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Map the current reality
We map your problem, the system it sits in and the context around it as essences and manifestations, in the detail the problem demands. We do this through conversations with the right people inside and outside your organisation.
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Locate your inversions
We place the changes you have already made onto the reality map as inversions and look at where they sit, where they pull against each other, and where you might have missed inversions, slowing you down or creating resistance.
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Invert and cohere
We help you come up with more inversions, essences you might have missed and together, with you, we identify what else must be inverted to cohere? We treat resistance as information, feed it back, and iterate until the new reality holds, coherently.
Who takes part
Us, and the people who hold pieces of your reality: a mix from inside your organisation and outside it. The people who run the system day to day, the people affected by it, and the people who see it from the edges.
We guide you on the perspectives that are important to consider. We have these conversations along with you and, together, we build you the reality map.
What you walk away with
A clear map of the essences of your problem, and of the context it is nested in. This visualises the complexity you’re dealing with and helps to communicate it.
A view of where your current initiatives sit, and where the gaps are.
The missing inversions: relevant options you had not considered, with the logic that makes them hold.
An understanding of where your resistance comes from, and how to read it and use it.
Your initiatives aligned to pull in one direction, so your change gains momentum.
What this is not…
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This is not consultancy
We do not take the problem away and hand you a strategy to implement. You still own the problem but you gain a broader understanding and the ability to bring coherence to your solutions.
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This is not workshopping
This won’t be done through a two-day offsite or a 2 month assignment. The process is iterative by nature, unfolding over a series of sessions. We end with coherent new realities not a deliverable deck or report.
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This is not optimisation
We do not help you run the current system better. You must be changing something fundamental. We help you see the whole system you're changing and design a new, radically different and coherent one.
How engagements are scoped
Most engagements are fee-based and scoped to the problem, because the depth of mapping varies widely. We scope and quote each one against what you are trying to change.
For problems large and consequential enough, we are open to other modes of collaboration.
Common questions
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Yes, the framework is agnostic to topic and scale. As long as the change you’re pursuing is major, non-incremental, our approach is applicable.
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We apply the process in lock-step with you. But we don’t own your problem, we don’t make your choices, nor do we recommend what choices you should make. We bring clarity, but the choices and trade-offs stay yours.
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It depends on the problem and the depth of the map. We scope this with you. But the process is iterative and your adaptability and decision making speed will strongly influence the process.
Start with a conversation
Tell us what you are trying to change and where you feel stuck.
The first conversation is about whether this is the right approach for your problem.
Welcome to the Third View podcast
The Third View is a podcast about change at the system level: what is actually happening when an industry inverts, a political order collapses, or a business model becomes obsolete overnight. Not what we should feel about it. What the structure of it is, and what it makes possible.
Every two weeks, Erik de Ruijter, Janne Brok and Manasi Kumbhat apply their framework of radical systems level change to one complex system: politics, business, or society.
If you think in systems, this is your show.
