Speed Creates Chaos
It’s 2010. Carbon credit programs are exploding globally, but no one has figured out how to distribute money equitably. The stakes are enormous. They needed a system that could channel hundreds of millions toward the right individual landowners. A poorly built system could perpetuate inequality at a massive scale.
So someone decides: let’s build it in one week.
And not with a team that’s been working together for years. With twelve relative strangers who have never met.
Each one is an expert in their domain… we had economists, geologists, geographers, agriculturists, policy specialists. Each one brilliant in isolation. And that was the problem.
The experts had done their work in isolation and there was an assumption that they could get together and just fold them into one system in a week.
The reality was: brilliant experts + isolation + deadline = twelve incompatible documents heading toward catastrophic misalignment.
Speed might hide the chaos, but it certainly didn’t eliminate it.
Individual Expertise Alone Fails Fast (all) Projects
Since there were 12 chapters, each belonging to one subject matter expert, the obvious move is let them own their subject. Let them do their deep work.
People don’t quite get that these things have parts. Each chapter isn’t a project on it’s own, it is a part of a machine. That means that for every chapter on economic distribution, there are elements about geography, supply chains, and more. No chapter can possibly stand alone.
So deep work does not mean solo work.
Isolated expertise produces isolated results. Person A writes a brilliant chapter (to themselves) on economics. Person B writes a brilliant chapter (to themselves) on agriculture. Person C writes something on geopolitics (to themselves) that’s technically sound but incompatible with A’s assumptions.
Then, when you go to bring all that work together, it’s instant crisis mode. It’s totally Muppets. You waste days on rework, trying unsuccessfully to find all the little bits of wrong in the document.
Isolation is always a precursor to failure.
Collaboration Isn’t About Being Nice
On day one of the REDD+ project, we made two leadership decisions that looked like a huge mistake.
1: “No one is writing their own chapter anymore. You’re all grouping on chapters.”
The expertise didn’t change. The time constraint didn’t change. What changed was the visibility system, the speed of feedback, the relationships of the authors.
Instead of twelve isolated experts, we had cross-functional teams…economists paired with agriculturists, policy specialists working alongside geologists. Each chapter had multiple perspectives embedded from the start.
2: “Every 20 minutes, we review.”
Literally every 20 minutes, we’d stop and ask how far people were on their outlines and writing. And we would expect people to have questions for others in the group. So, every 20, the work paused, the teams talked. Questions were asked. Conflicts surfaced immediately. Adjustments were made in real-time.
Every 20 minutes = constant steering of the ship.
Over a week of intense work, that’s dozens and dozens of micro-corrections. A potential misalignment caught on day 2 averted a crisis that would have easily killed the report later. The second night, a team stayed late making major revisions to the model.
This is group deep work. We created a system that compounded clarity in real time.
Why This Matters Right Now
My Christmas wish: 2026 needs collaboration. We need to work together.
We think collaboration means: more meetings, more communication, more tools, more accessibility.
What the REDD+ experience shows us the opposite: fewer meetings, more visibility, structured interruptions, and seemless, constant improvement.
The detail of my holiday wish:
1. Visibility eliminates blame.
When twelve people can see what everyone else is producing, like seeing it literally, on a board, there’s no mystery about who’s ahead or behind, what’s working or what’s stuck. You can see the problem, not the person. This removes the fear that kills collaboration. (yes, this happens on digital on-line boards too).
2. Structured interruptions prevent invisible chaos.
A 20-minute interrupt wasn’t a distraction. It was a feedback loop. We created a quick, painless way of saying, “Are we still together on this?” Most fast projects (or projects at all) don’t have that. Work compounds for days in isolation, then you discover misalignment when it’s too late to fix.
3. Cross-functional grouping allows constant project steering.
It could have been something like, “Let’s have economists talk to agriculturists in a meeting.” But we opted for the more effective, “You’re writing this chapter together. You can’t move forward until you’re aligned.” The system makes collaboration mandatory.
4. We do the right amount of work when we feel a bit of pressure.
When you are writing or creating something for yourself, you are answering your personal need for the perfect product. You will write more or less than is needed. You will do more or less than is needed. When someone else is there working with you, you will both see when things are becoming overkill or under expressed.
4. Coherence emerges from repeated correction, not perfect planning.
We didn’t spend three days planning the perfect chapter structure. We started working, interrupted constantly, corrected frequently, and let coherence emerge through iteration. This is faster than planning, we made small adjustments instead of big pivots.
What This Means for Your Team
If You’re an Individual Contributor:
Stop assuming silence means alignment. In your next fast project, ask: “How will we see the work? How often will we check in? How do we know when we are done?”
If the answer is “updates on Friday,” you’re in a chaos-hiding project. If the answer is “we’ll check the board daily (or better) and interrupt every morning (or better),” you’re in a system designed for real-time coherence.
If You’re a Project Manager:
Your job is to manage the visibility of the work and how the team coordinates.
Build the system first:
Physical visibility: Board, stickies, or shared space where work is constantly visible
Cross-functional grouping: Stop isolating expertise. Pair or mob people across functions early and often
Clarity Compounding: What are you doing to make sure that people know are doing the best thing they could be doing right now?
Then start the work. The system does the managing.
If You’re Leading:
Stop measuring output, throughput, or velocity: they lead to rework and failure demand. Start measuring alignment and rapid problem solving, they lead to products that go out strong and at the right time.
How fast can your teams detect misalignment? How quickly can they correct it? How early can they surface integration problems?
The teams that win in 2026 won’t be the ones that move fastest in isolation. They’ll be the ones that move coherently. Teams that are constantly checking, constantly correcting, constantly steering.
The 2026 Challenge
2026 will be chaotic. There’s strife in the world. There’s uncertainty. There are constraints you can’t control.
You can’t control the chaos. But you can structure how you respond to it.
The teams that thrive won’t be the ones that move fastest. They’ll be the ones that see the fastest, correct the fastest, and integrate the fastest.
Build the board, the room, whatever visualization is needed. Group the experts. Interrupt the work. Let coherence emerge.
We work better together. We fail alone.
Have a good 2026. And when you start a fast project, start with visibility.
What You Can Do Next:
Join us for the Personal Kanban workshop. We’ll go deep on your actual limits, help build visuals that work for you personally, and create boundaries that work. Spend some time with us:
Deep Dive See Your Work-shopRead the full Personal Kanban book to understand the humanity behind the practice.
Read the Collaboration Equation to learn more about this type of leadership.
Work with Jim and Toni for personalized guidance implementing visibility in your specific situation.
Like and subscribe and all that stuff. But … really, everyone is running way above capacity and it’s hurting us all. So, please … opt out of that pain.
