An Operating Model Is Not an Org Chart

Welcome to the latest edition of the agentic operating-model Newsletter. This week, I found evidence of a shift in attention from what AI agents can do to how organisations can make their work reliable, accountable and valuable. We found three articles worth your attention, plus a look back at the OECD report.https://www.linkedin.com/company/theagenticoperatingmodel/Links to resourcesLinks:1.        https://www.ibm.com/thought-leadership/institute-business-value/en-us/report/agentic-ai-learning2.        https://dxc.com/insights/knowledge-base/paper/agentic-ai-workforce-transformation3.        https://www.forrester.com/blogs/agentic-development-security-picks-up-where-traditional-security-tools-leave-off/4.        https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/artificial-intelligence.html5.        https://www.eversheds-sutherland.com/en/united-states/insights/global-ai-regulatory-update-october-20266.        https://digital-skills-jobs.europa.eu/en/latest/research/agentic-ai-organisations

Topic this week: What it means, the research that matters, and where to startEach week, we'll post a newsletter and an audio podcast with a roundup of the topics and articles we have come across that we think will help you.Resourceshttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/agentic-operating-model-newsletter-number-1-ycu3e/https://orbitmethod.com/

Ember and Oak is a new fine-dining restaurant used to explain agentic operating models, starting with the strategy cascade. Moving from ambition through strategy, financial model, operating model and roadmap, it discusses how to split tasks between humans and agents while protecting a premium brand.Visit https://orbitmethod.com/ or https://www.linkedin.com/company/theagenticoperatingmodel/home/for resources and more information

In this mini-series episode Affan Burki and Marc Walker explain the development of an operating model through a the design of a Restaurant. This takes you step by step through the process and highlights the challenges when AI Agents are involved.

Why do so many transformations fail, even when the technology works?Most programs look at change through one lens: the technology, the operations or the people. In this episode, Marc Walker, Affan Burki and Wout Helsmoortel argue that you need all three at once, and each of us takes one: experience (how people live the change), architecture (the systems that make it possible) and operations (how the work actually gets done). The trouble usually starts at the joints between them.We cover what successful transformations get right, the Andon cord that let any factory worker stop the production line, and why communication and trust matter even more when the transformation team is as uncertain as everyone else. On experience, we look at what changes when agents stop being tools and start acting for you, and how confidence thresholds decide when an agent goes ahead or asks first. On architecture, context and trust become the design problem. On operations, the questions are feasibility and roles: most organizations can't say who does what, because they don't describe roles in a shared language. We close with the Orbit Method current state canvas, which brings all three lenses together on one page.Chapters00:00 Welcome Back00:22 Why Transformations Break at the Joints02:17 What Successful Transformations Get Right04:38 Can You Put Your Operating Model on Paper?06:42 The Andon Cord: Who Gets to Stop the Line09:00 Communication and Trust in Agentic Change10:50 The Experience Lens: From SaaS to Agents13:38 Context at the Right Time15:28 Confidence Scores as Guardrails17:00 Designing the Human-Agent Interface19:17 The Architecture Lens: Horizons and the Tech Stack24:11 The Business Payoff26:33 The Operations Lens: Is It Feasible?29:56 The Current State Canvas: Nine Blocks, Three Lenses33:06 Start with Key Processes35:07 Role Mapping and a Shared Language37:51 Wrap-Up and What's NextNext episode: who does what. We walk through the target operating model canvas and how to divide work between people and AI agents, moving from the map phase to the design phase.Try Orbit Method tools at https://orbitmethod.com and tell us what works and what doesn't. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe so you don't miss the next one.

What is an operating model, and why does it matter now that AI agents can do real work?In our first episode, Marc Walker, Affan Burki and Wout Helsmoortel start with the basics. Most people picture an org chart or a binder of policies, but an operating model is how people, process and technology come together to deliver value, and it's where the gap between strategy and performance opens up. We trace the line from strategy to business model to operating model, borrow "complicated versus complex" from General Stanley McChrystal's Team of Teams, and use a restaurant to make it concrete: the menu is the business model, the kitchen and floor are the operating model, and the plate is performance. Then we ask what happens when an agent joins the kitchen, and why the tacit knowledge your people carry in their heads is exactly what an agent needs written down.Chapters00:00 Cold Open: Technology Isn't the Bottleneck00:26 Meet the Hosts04:22 Not an Org Chart: Where Operating Models Came From06:54 People, Process, Technology08:53 The Gap Between Strategy and Performance12:06 Strategy to Business Model to Operating Model14:33 Complicated, Complex, Robust, Resilient15:46 The Restaurant Analogy20:45 Restaurant Procurement: Could an Agent Handle It?24:07 Tacit Knowledge and the Documentation Gap27:37 Introducing Orbit Method30:09 Wrap-Up and What's NextNext episode: the three lenses of transformation (experience, architecture and operations), with each of us taking one lens.Try Orbit Method tools at https://orbitmethod.com and tell us what works and what doesn't. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe so you don't miss the next one.