The Case of the Unfriendly Slug: Why Your Organisational Map Might Be Holding You Back

by | Jul 4, 2025 | Blog | 0 comments

The Case of the Unfriendly Slug: Why Your Organisational Map Might Be Holding You Back (And What to Do About It)

In my last two posts, I shared how organisational transformation often fails because leaders are navigating with outdated, incomplete, or misleading maps, mistaking the report for the reality, or the strategy for the system.

But I want to make this really concrete.

A Personal Example: The Case of the Unfriendly Slug

Recently, I was creating quizzes as part of an upcoming email program to support the ideas in my soon-to-be-released book on organisational transformation. These quizzes are designed to raise awareness, offer insight, and give immediate value, no theory for theory’s sake, just tools that help people see their organisations more clearly.

In the process, my assistant pointed out that the URLs (slugs) for the landing pages were messy and not very user-friendly. I thought: “That’s just how the plugin works.”

But her comment sparked something. I started poking around. I didn’t know much about the backend, but as I explored, I discovered something surprising: I’d drawn a mental map based on limited knowledge, and that map had quietly constrained my thinking.

My first instinct was to implement the first solutions I found, heavy solutions: JavaScript, Python. But those felt like overkill. I kept on searching, and then I found it, a simple HTML workaround. Elegant. Effective. Hidden in plain sight.

The truth? My original map made the solution invisible. Once I questioned the boundaries of my map, new paths emerged.

Organisational Transformation Works the Same Way

Leaders often tell me:

“We’ve tried everything, but nothing sticks.”

“The strategy looks perfect on paper, but execution keeps stalling.”

“We keep having the same problems in different forms.”

Sound familiar?

Here’s the punchline: You’re not stuck because you’re doing it wrong. You’re stuck because your map is incomplete.

Like me fiddling with HTML, you’re probably working from what you think is possible based on what you know, and ignoring what lies just outside that frame.

So What Do You Do?

Here’s how I help clients expand their organisational map:

  1. Bring in new perspectives. Just like my assistant helped me spot the problem, organisations need fresh eyes to reveal what insiders no longer see.
  2. Walk the territory. Don’t assume your strategy matches reality. Interview, observe, Gemba-walk. Listen for friction. Look for rituals, not roles.
  3. Update your map as you go. The terrain shifts. What worked six months ago might be irrelevant now. Build the habit of re-mapping.
  4. Notice your “impossible” zones. Every team has parts of the system they quietly avoid or assume can’t be changed. That’s usually where the leverage lives.

The Map Shapes the Mind

Whether it’s a URL slug or an org-wide transformation, the quality of your outcomes depends on the quality of your mental map.

That’s exactly why I’ve been building tools, like the quizzes, and writing this book: to help people see more clearly. Sometimes, the biggest shifts don’t come from new strategies, but from seeing the existing system differently.

So what part of your map needs updating? Maybe it’s not a new tool or strategy you need. Maybe it’s a different way of seeing.

Let’s talk.

#OrganisationalTransformation #MentalModels #SystemsThinking #Leadership #ChangeManagement #Gemba #UpcomingBook #LeadershipTools

Through Yinsight, I support companies, their managers and teams in their development with a view to achieving tangible performance that respects people. Creating strategy, working on collective values, aligning teams, managing complexity and interpersonal dynamics, and providing individual and collective support for transformation are at the heart of my work.