Good evening, and welcome to this edition of The Scribbler—a newsletter that circles one organisational problem until it shows itself.
This month's thread is simple: too many institutions are mistaking enduring tensions for one-off problems, alignment for coherence, and process for judgement.
But first, a bit of trivia...
Trivia question: In 1991, which organisational theorist framed learning as a tension between exploration and exploitation? Answer at the bottom of this scribbling.
This Edition's Scribbling
Across my writing in March—on polarity mapping, purpose, governance and autonomy, standardisation and innovation, Martin Kearns on Agile's unintended consequences, and the higher-order question of control and empowerment—the same theme keeps returning. Mature leadership is less about choosing a tribe and more about discerning what sort of tension you are actually in, then governing it without panic, theatre, or self-deception.
Dr Robert N. Winter
Here in Australia, that question lands with unusual force. The Reserve Bank lifted the cash rate to 4.10 per cent on 17 March and explicitly pointed to greater capacity pressures, sharply higher fuel prices flowing from the Middle East conflict, and upside risks to inflation. Budget season is also approaching, with the Federal Budget presented in May. At the same time, Australia's National AI Plan is now moving from announcement to implementation, promising competitiveness, productivity and resilience while also insisting on safety, regulation and public confidence; the new Australian AI Safety Institute has been set up to help assess risks and support compliance. Globally, the OECD says the evolving conflict in the Middle East is testing the resilience of the world economy, lifting energy costs and volatility even as AI-related investment continues to support activity. That is an awkward setting for leadership: one that invites overreaction, centralisation, and the desperate hope that better tools might save us from muddled thinking.