Change the Question.
We help organisations understand a problem they have not been able to solve, and we leave them able to handle the next one themselves. That is the whole of it.
Or talk it throughMost stuck projects are the wrong kind of problem in disguise.
There are two kinds of problem, and we tend to treat them the same way, which is the mistake. Some are intricate: knowable and plannable, the sort an expert gets right, and it stays right. Others are emergent: the parts react to each other, and to you, so the situation changes the moment you act on it. More rigour fixes the first kind and quietly tightens the second. Most projects that keep slipping are emergent problems wearing an intricate costume, which is exactly why planning harder has not worked.
What we write about.
The two kinds of problem
Intricate versus emergent, and why the difference is the whole game.
The problem statement trap
Why writing the problem down too early can quietly lock in the wrong question.
When more rigour makes it worse
The cases where a tighter plan tightens the knot.
Reading a system honestly
Seeing what the status report cannot, and saying it plainly.
Changing the question
How the right reframe dissolves a problem that looked impossible.
Spotting the emergent
How to spot when intricate is really emergent.
The writing lives on Substack.
Essays on emergent problems, honestly told. New pieces every so often, never on a schedule for its own sake.
Conversations and explainers on YouTube.
Short pieces that show the ideas rather than just describe them.
Visit the channelIf this describes something you are carrying, talk it through.
We are happy to discuss the ideas here with you and your team. This is a conversation about the thinking, not a pitch. If it is useful, good. If it is not, no harm done.
About KOLO.
KOLO is a small New Zealand practice interested in why emergent problems get mistaken for intricate ones, and what changes when you see the difference. We write, we make the occasional video, and we talk to people who are wrestling with it.