Engine-for-Change

Join founder @aprilkmills for a LI Live session next Wed for job seekers looking to regain their agency. linkedin.com/events/7444433…

Check out @aprilkmills latest article: Are you creating opportunities for others? linkedin.com/pulse/you-crea… via @LinkedIn

Check out @aprilkmills latest article: 1 + 1 Never Equals 3 Unless You Eliminate the Friction: What Morris Chang Taught the Semiconductor World (And What It Means for All of Us) linkedin.com/pulse/1-never-… via @LinkedIn

Check out @aprilkmills latest article: The Simple Ratio to Live with Fewer Regrets linkedin.com/pulse/simple-r… via @LinkedIn

@aprilkmills shows us what @bureaucracyhack looks like applied to her son's urgent spinal surgery. Accelerating Spinal Surgery - Driving Change and Bureaucracy Hacking App... youtu.be/YdhUBjWvk9I?si… via @YouTube

Founder @aprilkmills featured in Forbes talking about Change Agent Essential #1: Drive Change, Not People forbes.com/sites/nelldebe…

Founder @aprilkmills was interviewed by @adammendler about leadership, change, and more. Full interview at adammendler.com/blog/april-mil…

Our founder, @aprilkmills was featured on Nell 3D's Subtract to Succeed session. Check it out and learn more about driving change, not people. What If We Subtracted… Coercion? open.substack.com/pub/nell3d/p/w…

If your project is stuck in neutral, 99% chance: you’re simply not the priority. Fix it fast by: 1. Help the current #1 win → you become useful to it or 2. Forcefully restack the priority list so the real #1 gets oxygen. Momentum follows priority. Always. #BureaucracyHacks

Today I spoke at the Drucker Global Forum about “Trojan mice” vs. “Trojan horses.” Organisational change programmes often struggle to get results despite investment, careful planning & leadership commitment. Traditional "Trojan horse" initiatives (large scale pilot projects designed for eventual system-wide rollout) struggle against the complexity inherent in large systems. The alternative, "Trojan mice," offers a fundamentally different pathway: having many people across the system with the skills & agency to test out small, well-focused changes to address complex problems. The choice between Trojan horses & Trojan mice isn't about abandoning ambition or settling for incremental tinkering. It's about recognising that in big systems, distributed action by skilled people with agency nearly always achieves more than centrally controlled, large-scale programmes. By cultivating many changemakers across the system & creating conditions where small, focused experiments can flourish, we can unlock the collective intelligence & energy needed for systemic change. Three facts about Trojan mice: 1) They fail often, fail early, & learn greatly. The cost of failure occurs early in project timelines, rather than at launch when it's too late. This is in line with what @AmyCEdmondson calls "intelligent failure"—thoughtful experiments that result in useful learning & allow teams to move forward. 2) They capture what works in complex systems - local ownership, fast feedback, & momentum that scales organically. Because changes are small & focused, they can be genuinely owned by those implementing them, creating commitment rather than compliance. 3) Most organisations are built for consistency, not novelty. Trojan mice strategies bypass this structural resistance by building agency & capability throughout the system rather than concentrating change authority in a central team. I learnt about Trojan mice from Chris Bolton @whatsthepont: whatsthepont.blog/2020/02/09/tro… #DruckerForum

Everyone needs to hear this…

Our founder, April K. Mills can be found speaking at YouTube. Subscribe today for latest content.

No one is withholding better results. We are often refusing them by the things we insist on doing or by what we refuse to do.

What are your top bureaucracy pain points? I'll show you my list when you show me yours. #bureaucracyhacking #bureaucracyhacks

@HelenBevan @DigitalDefynd Great post. We’ve been advocating for a shift to agency for 15 years. Anyone who wants some simple tips can check out “Everyone Is a Change Agent.” by @aprilkmills

I do not like the term “empowerment”. “Empowerment” is everywhere in the world of change leadership. It’s in the top three of the most commonly used leadership terms globally according to @DigitalDefynd. Personally, I never use “empowerment” unless I’m working with someone who is doing so already. When organisations or leaders seek to "empower" people, it's often them choosing what's best or how much control others can have. This puts the person or group doing the empowering above everyone else & doesn't really give true freedom to those on the receiving end. Empowerment suggests that power is something that “we” give to “them,” reinforcing the status of the “giver” & (often unintentionally) making others feel weak or dependent, which is the opposite of what empowerment is supposed to do. “Agency” is a better principle than “empowerment”. It means recognising people's innate ability to contribute & lead rather than relying on managers to bestow permission. People with agency decide what to do, take action & shape what happens. It’s their own drive & ability, not because someone else says they can. Agency makes people active collaborators in change & leads to better, more sustainable change outcomes. As leaders, we can give people empowerment, by granting permission or sharing authority. We cannot give people agency: people have to build it for themselves through practice, experience & reflection. But leaders can create a climate for agency to thrive through encouragement, resources & space. Being “agentic” means acting with or displaying agency. This term has become popular recently because of the development of “agentic AI” – AI systems that can act autonomously & make decisions, rather than just react to commands, prompts or rules. We don’t just need agentic AI; we need agentic people too. “Agentic” is beyond “empowered”; it means shifting from a top-down model of control to one that trusts & supports people to make their own choices, solve problems & shape their own work. This shift requires us to let go of rigid structures, foster open dialogue & design systems that enable autonomy & collective discovery. When teams operate with agency, they become active collaborators, driving innovation & resilience in the face of uncertainty. The future belongs to leaders who encourage agency - rather than empowerment - where people don’t wait for permission, but act with purpose & ownership. “Designing for agency: how leaders move past empowerment”: agileleadershipjourney.com/blog/designing…. By Daniel Gagnon & Pete Behrens. Graphic adapted from “Agency is the highest level of personal competence”: psychologytoday.com/us/blog/gettin…. By @ThomasSBateman.

It was an honor to be your 900th guest Newt. I think the conversation will open some eyes to how really exciting space is becoming. It’s not all about starships and Mars. There are other things that will be much more significant to the United States economy and national defense.

Just read that Starbucks lost $30B after hiring a McKinsey consultant as CEO. Guy spent his career advising founders how to build companies, but never built one himself. 17 months later, he’s gone. They bring in the Taco Bell CEO… and the market cap jumps $20B overnight. Turns out running a company is harder than advising one.

Elephant in the room = too much bureaucracy. You can escape it. Try this bureaucracy hack: When you start a new meeting series, set it to end after 4 meetings. Ask, "Is this helping?" before booking the 5th meeting. #bureaucracyhacks #accelerateresults #yourewelcome