Change efforts that feel unique from the inside often share recognizable patterns.
The Field Guide is an ongoing inquiry into institutional change and the people who lead it.
It began with a simple observation: many change efforts that appear unique from the inside often share recognizable patterns. The language differs. The sectors differ. The personalities differ. Yet the underlying dynamics recur with surprising consistency.
Through essays, conversations, and practitioner interviews, this project explores how institutional change is experienced in practice: in particular, how power circulates beneath formal authority and how people sustain meaningful work inside systems that often resist it.
The aim is to develop a practical field guide for change leaders — a way of recognizing patterns that are often difficult to see while living through them.
If these patterns sound familiar, I’d like to hear from you.
I am conducting original research into the lived experience of change leaders across sectors and institutions. Responses are confidential. Nothing will be attributed without your explicit permission.
