The Conditions for Progress

The Conditions for Progress are factors that can be shaped to make progress easier by creating the space where skills and practices can unfold effectively. They are not imposed, but aspirational – emerging and evolving through the interaction of leadership, systems, and behavior. They are shaped in two directions at once:

Conditions are influenced top-down through formal structures, management decisions, and organizational development efforts. Policies, systems, and cultural initiatives can reinforce or weaken the conditions in which progress occurs.

Conditions develop bottom-up through the everyday actions of leaders and teams. When the Practices for Progress are applied consistently – across projects, decisions, and relationships – they begin to influence how people work, relate, and contribute. Over time, these repeated actions form patterns that shape the conditions in which progress occurs.

This dual dynamic means that conditions are never fixed and not static: Constantly in a dynamic state, continuously negotiated, and always responsive to what is being practiced.

The Conditions for Progress come in four clusters:

• Direction defines where the organization is going.
• Integrity defines how the organization relates.
• Environment defines the practical foundation that allows progress to take root.
• Structure defines how an organization operates and shapes how progress becomes scalable.

Direction provides the foundation for coordinated and meaningful action. It ensures that individuals and teams understand where they are going, why it matters, and how their efforts contribute to something larger. In complex systems, direction creates orientation. It reduces hesitation, prevents distraction, and enables confident decision-making without waiting for perfect information.

At its core, direction provides clarity of purpose and orientation that anchors effort, even when circumstances evolve. It allows the organization to navigate uncertainty while staying aligned around what matters most.

Feedback mechanisms reinforce and refine direction over time. They enable continuous adjustment through loops of observation, insight, and learning. Direction is not a static message, it is maintained through structured reflection and honest communication. Direction is also reinforced by meaningful context. When people see how their work connects to a broader purpose, tasks feel less mechanical and more consequential.

Direction depends on a shared language. Common terminology reduces friction, accelerates coordination, and helps organizations move faster without confusion. Clear language becomes a practical asset for navigating complexity together. Direction enables autonomy, supports better decisions, and allows progress to continue even when not everything is known.

Integrity ensures that actions and values are aligned across all levels of an organization. It creates a foundation of trust that allows individuals and teams to act with confidence. When integrity is present, expectations are clear, behavior is consistent, and people know what they can rely on.

At its core, integrity involves congruence, the alignment between what is believed and how decisions are made. It shows up in everyday actions, not just in statements of intent. Leaders model it through consistency, transparency, and follow-through, creating a ripple effect across teams.

A critical component of integrity is psychological safety. People must feel safe to speak openly, challenge assumptions, admit mistakes, and learn from experience. Without this, progress becomes limited, driven by compliance rather than initiative. Trust grows when people are given autonomy to act and the responsibility to own outcomes. Micromanagement erodes integrity by undermining the very confidence it claims to protect.

But trust alone is not enough, it must be reinforced by systems that back people up. Integrity becomes sustainable when organizational processes and structures support accountability, reinforce fairness, and provide guidance under pressure. These systems protect against inconsistency and ensure that values remain operational even when things get difficult. When integrity is strong, teams can move with confidence. They act with consistency, communicate without second-guessing, and know that the environment around them will support, not sabotage, their progress.

The environment provides the practical foundation that allows progress to take root. This environment spans multiple dimensions, each one addressing a different aspect of what people need to move forward effectively.

The physical environment includes the functionality, safety and inspiration of the spaces where work happens. Design, layout, and atmosphere affect focus, energy, and collaboration in subtle but powerful ways.

The technical environment refers to the tools, systems, and platforms that support work. It reduces friction by making essential processes intuitive, reliable, and accessible, so energy can go into progress, not workarounds.

The cultural environment sets the tone for how people relate to one another. Inclusion, respect, and belonging form the basis for open dialogue, shared accountability, and the willingness to engage beyond minimum expectations.

The rhythmic environment captures the pace and timing of how an organization operates. It includes the routines, recovery periods, and reflection cycles that support sustainable cadence. Rhythm also shapes how and when the organization expands, consolidates, or exits. Progress doesn’t happen at a constant speed. It requires cycles of acceleration and pause, of exploration and refinement, of scaling up and letting go. A healthy rhythm gives space not just for clarity and recalibration, but for knowing when to move forward and when to move on.

The ecological environment reflects the organization’s awareness of its interdependence with broader systems: customers, partners, communities, and the planet. Progress is not isolated, it happens in context and that context shapes long-term relevance and resilience.

While these elements may not always be fully within a leader’s control, their presence or absence significantly influences how far, how fast, and how sustainably progress can unfold.

Structure defines how an organization operates and shapes how progress becomes scalable. The desired  structure in the Positive Progress Leadership model is one that is built up on the competing and complementary demands of exploration, optimization, and scaling. 

• The activation of ideas and learning at the edges (Forge)
• The optimization of core operations for reliable, effective delivery (Efficiency)
• The investment into scalable opportunities that position the organization for the future (Investment)

Additionally, structure clarifies who owns which decisions, where accountability lives, and how resources move across competing priorities. It allows small, fast experiments to happen at the edge while protecting the stability of core operations. It creates pathways for ideas, people, and capital to flow between units, so that what is learned at the frontier of innovation can scale, and what is optimized in the core can inform investment decisions.

Structure also defines governance mechanisms that actively manage this balance. Whether through dedicated roles or cross-pillar councils, structure provides the guardrails that prevent either operational excellence or speculative growth from overrunning the system.

Practice-specific skill gaps should be identified via a four step analytical approach:

Identify the skill gap
Look for friction points: What’s stuck? Where are decisions slowing down, energy fading, or execution breaking down? Determine what abilities are missing. 

Decide how to close the gap
Not every gap requires training. Is this something we should train someone to do? Or is this an ability we need to cover with another profile, role, or design decision? Sometimes it’s more effective to reassign responsibility, hire complementary talent, or adjust team structures. The goal is not to upskill everyone in everything, but to activate progress through the right mix of skills.

Train or reinforce, if the skill is appropriate for development
Train it if it’s new or underdeveloped. Reinforce it if it exists but is inconsistent. Ensure development is tied to application and not only theory. Create space for the  use of the skill, not only learning. No skill sticks without use.
Design follow-up structures through coaching, peer feedback, reflection points, and role modeling. Skills become effective and efficient through repetition, visibility, and time.

Anticipate future needs
Skill development requires more than just catching up, it means staying ready. Scan the horizon for evolving work, changing roles, or new demands. Use targeted upskilling and reskilling to stay adaptive without overloading people. Work with trends and data to understand changing demands.