Don’t micromanage the cheese

This maybe my greatest sentence yet…I think everyone’s made a toasted cheese sarnie*? so I am going with this metaphor…

Cheese toasties are all about balance, the ying of crunchy bread to the yang of gooey melted cheese. Too much cheese = gooey mess. Too little, and it’s just dry bread pretending to be something else.

So where the hell am I going with this….

Well in the gym this morning I was mulling over Kotters duel operating system and how organisations operate, especially now, where hybrid and remote work have disrupted the way we connect, collaborate, and lead, yep that what I think about at the gym, I read loads then go sweat it out.

John Kotter’s dual operating system has the hierarchical system, I have seen it called the Slow System. This is the bread: structured, stable, and efficient. It holds things together. Without it, a lot of stuff does not really work.

Then there’s the Fast System, the melted cheese. This is the informal, networked way of working: fluid, adaptable, and capable of rapid innovation. That where knowledge moves and shakes, connections and sparks fly, its often how problems are solved, how many decisions get made andddd it’s what actually makes a toastie a toastie.

Smart orgs don’t choose between these two, they recognise they both exist, they learn to balance them. Lets face it in a world where hybrid and remote work have redefined how teams function, that balance is harder, and IMO and more important than ever.

What hybrid broke… and what it revealed

Before the shift to hybrid and remote work, most orgs were heavily bread-based (yep the toasties coming along for this ride). Hierarchical, slow-moving, predictable. Decisions, feedback, ideas flowed downward, teams worked within silos, and efficiency was the goal, if not always the reality.

As Sarah Drummond and Lou Downe have pointed out in their work on Good Services, most of the real work in orgs happens outside of that formal structure. It happens in the invisible networks of people who just get things done, the designers, policy people, service teams, and community leaders who find ways to make things work with or despite the system, not because of it.

These networks as author fave Steven Johnson calls ‘liquid networks’ were always there, flowing between the cracks of rigid hierarchies. But when remote work took over, I feel a lot of the cracks got wider. Informal connections frayed, people became more isolated, pandemic wise were mainly sat alone at the kitchen table, and decision-making became unclear. Suddenly, the Fast System struggled the cheese no longer was effective, but do not worry cheese always finds a way.

Because lets face it the Slow System struggled too. Without the usual in-person interactions, old ways of working became sluggish, detached, and out of sync. I heard many stories of disconnection, I felt it myself, I was a float. As Amy Edmondson** would prob point out, the psychological safety that comes from proximity, those coffees in the corridors, laughter in the lifts, the things that allows people to take risks and contribute was eroding. But we are in a new world, not all is lost, us lovely humans adapt, we always have and though I still feel we are settling back into the disruption of new ways of working a lot of benefit has come from it.

Systems leadership (Or systems people TBH)

I am going to focus on a tiny slice, systems leadership, purely because I am speaking about it a lot this month… there’s many other slices in this space, more types of cheese that I will comes back to prob in another post.

The Systems Leadership Guide (Gov.UK) and the World Economic Forum’s work on systems leadership both point to the same idea: the best leaders today don’t just manage processes, they navigate complexity. They understand that in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world, the biggest problems can’t be solved with heavy handed top-down mandates or isolated innovation alone.

Instead, systems leadership is about holding both the Slow and Fast Systems in tension.

It means…

• Recognising emergent issues before they become crises. Systems leaders pay attention to weak signals and emerging patterns, rather than just reacting to bin fires when they break out.
• Creating space for innovation while maintaining stability. It’s not about abandoning structure, it never was, but about allowing adaptability within the structure.
• Bridging gaps between hierarchy and networks. Leaders don’t just sit at the top, they operate within and across networks, fostering connections, psychological safety and trust.

I feel its about loosely connected, tightly aligned teams (I feel like I pinched that phrase from somewhere I found it scribbled in my notebook… but maybe I said it!). This is the essence of good systems leadership, not micromanaging the cheese or over-controlling the bread but ensuring they work together in a way that makes sense.

Right folks what’s could be the reality in orgs…

Lets strengthen the cheese (the Fast System). Encourage and support informal collaboration, cross-functional teams, and knowledge-sharing. Remote and hybrid work don’t have to kill informal networks leaders just need to be deliberate about creating opportunities for organic connection***.

• Don’t neglect the bread (the Slow System). Structure still matters. But instead of rigid control, focus on clarity, alignment, and support. Leaders in hierarchical structures should be removing blockers, NOT adding friction.
• Invest in psychological safety. If people don’t feel safe to experiment, challenge ideas, speak up, or take risks, then the Fast System grinds to a halt. The best systems leaders look at creating trust and psychological safety at scale (not easy).
• Use hybrid and remote work as a chance to rethink, not replicate . IMO too many orgs tried to transplant old ways of working into a digital environment. Instead, we should be redesigning work for the world we live in now.
• Balance stability with adaptability — Management-driven hierarchies provide the structure orgs need to scale and sustain. But networked, organic systems allow them to sense and respond (great book) to change in real time. The best orgs don’t choose between them, they embrace and recognise both.

Why the hell does this matter

Kotter’s dual operating system isn’t just a theory, I feel it’s a practical way to understand why orgs either stagnate or thrive. The pace of change is only getting faster, theres not the luxury to choose between hierarchy and networks. If its possible we need to hold structure and fluidity in creative tension, create orgs that are not just functional but resilient, not just efficient but adaptive, not just well-run but genuinely thrivinggggg.

We need both

The fast AND the slow

The cheese AND the toast

*Even us vegans — tho vegan cheese ain’t TOP still, but is better….
**Another author fave along with Sarah and Lou… I won’t keep adding hahha…

***I will do a post on this and would love thoughts from folks, whats worked or not worked in your og and why