Tools to help you see, judge and move.
Practical guides, exercises and frameworks for leaders trying to understand current reality, test assumptions and build an organisation that can adapt without waiting for crisis.
These resources are designed to be used, not admired. Start with the stage that best matches where your organisation is now and move deeper as the work develops.
You do not need to transform everything at once.
The resource library follows a practical progression from understanding the model and current reality through to operating, developing and sustaining a more adaptive organisation.
Six stages of the journey.
You do not need every tool at once. Start with the stage that most closely reflects the problem you are trying to solve now, then move deeper as your organisation develops.
Starting Out
Understand the Shortboard model, the problem it is trying to solve, and the principles behind building for adaptability.
Explore this stage 02 SeeAssessing Current Reality
Understand where the organisation is now, which assumptions still hold, and where reality may already have moved.
Explore this stage 03 DecidePlanning the Transition
Decide what needs to change, what must remain dependable, and how to move without turning adaptability into another transformation programme.
Explore this stage 04 MoveOperating the Model
Put the model into practice through clearer decisions, modular structures, faster movement and stronger operating discipline.
Explore this stage 05 DevelopDeveloping the Riders
Strengthen the judgement, confidence and behaviours people need to operate well when authority, information and conditions are moving.
Explore this stage 06 SustainMastering the Model
Build adaptability into the organisation itself so that seeing, judging and moving become repeatable capabilities rather than one-off responses.
Explore this stageThis is not a maturity model you need to complete in sequence. Start where the pressure is real.
Use what helps. Ignore what does not.
The resources are grouped around the work leaders are trying to do, rather than around a theoretical sequence. Start with the pressure you are facing and use what helps you see it more clearly.
Starting Out
Understand the model, recognise the patterns that make change necessary and prepare yourself for the leadership transition ahead.
The Quiet Drift
The patterns that demand attention before gradual drift becomes an obvious organisational problem.
Open resource GuideThe Inflection Point
Taking a look in the mirror and recognising when familiar ways of operating are no longer sufficient for what comes next.
Open resource GuideNot a Strategy. An Anatomy.
What the Shortboard model is, what it is not, and what it asks of organisations trying to remain relevant.
Open resource PlaybookThe Leader's Transition Playbook
How to prepare personally for the shift in role, behaviour and judgement required by a more adaptive organisation.
Open resourceAssessing Current Reality
Look honestly at leadership behaviour, organisational capability and the gap between how the organisation believes it operates and what is actually happening.
The Leader's Self Assessment
From commander to navigator. Examine the leadership shifts required to operate effectively in a more fluid organisation.
Open resource AssessmentThe Litmus Test
Take an honest look at the organisation and identify where current structures, behaviours and assumptions may be holding it back.
Open resource Facilitation guideThe Litmus Test Guide
An aid for facilitators using the Litmus Test to create a richer and more productive organisational conversation.
Open resourcePlanning the Transition
Translate diagnosis into movement. Clarify direction, remove drag and create a practical first sequence of actions.
The 90-Day Transition Planner
Personalise the launch and turn the first 90 days into a deliberate sequence of decisions, actions and learning.
Open resource Cheat sheetThe 90-Day Transition Cheat Sheet
A concise reference for keeping the key priorities and actions of the transition visible as the work begins.
Open resource AuditThe Longboard Anchor Audit
Identify the drag, weight and legacy assumptions that make it harder for the organisation to move.
Open resource BuilderThe North Star Builder
Orient the whole organisation around a clear direction without pretending the route there can be perfectly predicted.
Open resource Action cardDay One Action Card
Prompt the first moves and turn intent into visible action from the beginning of the transition.
Open resourceOperating the Model
Put the model into everyday practice by creating clarity, coordinating ventures, capturing signals and making decisions quickly enough for judgement to matter.
The Adaptive Compass
Create clarity on business priorities while maintaining the ability to adjust as new information emerges.
Open resource TemplateMission Clarity Document
Define the next big moves and give teams enough clarity to act without scripting every step.
Open resource TemplateOKR Clarity Card
Capture the specific outcomes required next without allowing measurement to become a substitute for judgement.
Open resource CharterMission Swarm Charter
Drive alignment in multidisciplinary teams brought together around a defined problem, mission or opportunity.
Open resource Meeting guideVenture Meeting
Coordinate the flow of ideas, opportunities and priorities without allowing ventures to disappear into routine reporting.
Open resource TemplateThree Liner
Capture signals with enough clarity to make them useful without turning every observation into a lengthy business case.
Open resource FrameworkThe Venture Retro Framework
Decide whether to continue, pivot or kill based on what the venture has actually taught you.
Open resource FrameworkThe Kill Point Framework
Establish clear decision points that prevent weak ideas from continuing simply because time and effort have already been invested.
Open resource MapSignal-to-Swarm Map
Turn observations and ideas into focused action by mapping the path from signal through triage to a resourced swarm.
Open resourceDeveloping the Riders
Develop the reflexes, judgement and adaptive behaviours people need when responsibility is pushed closer to the point of greatest knowledge.
The Switchboard Reference Card
Support in-the-moment reflex change by making adaptive responses easier to recognise and practise.
Open resource Workshop guideThe Switchboard Team Workshop Guide
Ingrain reflex change through action and team practice rather than relying on language and intention alone.
Open resource Self-assessmentThe Rider Self Assessment
Guide personal development by examining the behaviours and capabilities needed to operate effectively on a shortboard.
Open resource Hiring frameworkThe DNA Engineering Hiring Framework
Assess adaptive capabilities during hiring and build the behaviours the organisation needs into its talent decisions.
Open resourceMastering the Model
Make adaptability easier to sustain by improving visibility, measuring learning, creating shared language and keeping senior stakeholders connected to the work.
The Shortboard Dashboard Template
Give leaders a concise set of indicators for understanding whether the organisation is becoming more adaptive in practice.
Open resource CalculatorThe Return on Learning Calculator
Assess the value of intelligence and learning generated through experimentation, not simply the immediate financial result.
Open resource One-pagerThe Shortboard Model One Page
Make advocacy easier by giving leaders a concise way to explain the model and the thinking behind it.
Open resource Reference guideThe Shortboard Lexicon
Understand the language of the model and establish a shared vocabulary across teams and leaders.
Open resource Briefing templateBoard and Leadership Team Update
Galvanise senior support and keep the case for change, evidence, progress and next decisions visible at the top of the organisation.
Open resourceNot a Strategy. An Anatomy.
If you want one place to understand what the Shortboard model is, what it is not, and what it asks of an organisation, start here.
This guide strips the model back to its essential logic. It explains the role of the three waves, the relationship between dependability and adaptability, and why the model is less about designing a perfect structure than creating the capability to keep responding as reality changes.
Open the resourceUse it to understand the model before trying to implement it.
It is designed to help leaders get clear on the underlying logic before reaching for structures, tools or transformation plans.
- Understand the three-wave logic.
- Distinguish adaptability from constant change.
- See how dependability and experimentation coexist.
- Understand what the model asks of leaders and institutions.
Sometimes you need more than a template.
The resources are designed to help you think and act for yourself. But some situations are too consequential, contested or complex to work through with a framework alone.
Leading Through Reality works directly with leadership teams facing material change - helping them understand what has shifted, test the assumptions underneath the plan and strengthen the judgement needed to decide what happens next.
Executive Diagnostic
For teams that need clarity now.
Work on a live issue and understand what has changed, where
judgement is getting stuck and what needs to move.
Leadership Programme
For teams that need lasting capability.
Build a leadership team that gets better at seeing reality,
exercising judgement and adapting for itself.
The tools can help you start. The capability has to live in the organisation.