★★★★ 4.1 on Amazon • Part of The Transformative Change Series

The 6 Big Ideasof Adaptive Organizations

From Frameworks to Sense-making

Six sense-making strategies to get yourself and your organization unstuck. Stop installing frameworks and start diagnosing what's really going on.

The 6 Big Ideas of Adaptive Organizations book cover

An Antidote to Outdated Change Frameworks

Organizations don't fail because they lack the right framework. They fail because they're stuck in a cycle of superficial thinking — installing processes instead of understanding their system.

The 6 Big Ideas aren't a prescriptive playbook. They're sense-making models designed to help you diagnose what's happening in your organization and respond thoughtfully. Navigating complex adaptive systems requires that we try something, see if it works, and then try again if it doesn't.

This deliberately incomplete guide gives you just enough structure to start exploring — and enough freedom to make the ideas your own.

The 6 Big Ideas of Adaptive Organizations diagram showing all six sense-making models

The Macro Model: Explore ↔ Act

Explore

Use the 6 Big Ideas to sense-make and diagnose what's happening in your organizational system. Understand before you intervene.

repeat

Act

Use the Elements of Change to convert your insights into deliberate action. Then explore again to see what happened.

The 6 Big Ideas

Six sense-making models to help you diagnose, navigate, and respond to organizational change. Use them individually or combine them to match your context.

🔀

The 2 Change Strategies

Optimization vs. Evolution. Are you making things faster, better, and cheaper? Or are you elevating beliefs and behaviors? Know which strategy your situation actually needs.

🌊

The 5 Waves of Transformative Change

From superficial thinking to personal awareness. Every transformation rides through waves — understand which wave you're in and what it takes to move forward.

🎯

The 3 Agilities of Effective Organizations

Leadership Agility, Change Agility, and Delivery Agility. Most organizations over-index on delivery frameworks while ignoring the leadership and change capabilities that enable them.

🤝

The 5 Universals of Change

Why do people resist change? Usually because they weren't part of defining it or it's mismatched with their purpose. Learn what makes change stick — or fall apart.

⚙️

The 5 Levers of Change

People, Strategy, Structure, Process, Technology. Your organization is an interconnected system. Pulling one lever affects the others. Think holistically, not in silos.

🎨

The 4 Dimensions of Change

Self, Stance, Big Ideas, and Tools — the art and science of change. Who you are as a human matters more than the framework you install. Balance is everything.

What Makes It Different

Sense-making, Not Prescriptions

These aren't step-by-step instructions. They're models to help you see your situation more clearly and respond with intention. There's no wrong way to use these ideas.

Deliberately Incomplete

At 88 pages, this guide gives you just enough to start. It's designed to spark your thinking, not replace it. Your context matters more than any framework.

Born from Real Experience

Ken and Jason's combined decades of consulting, coaching, and leading transformations are distilled into practical models you can draw on a whiteboard tomorrow.

Problems, Not Theory

The "Extra Goodies" chapter maps real organizational problems — delivery, process, leadership, transformation, and change — to which Big Idea to start with and why.

Written by Practitioners, for Practitioners

KR

Ken Rickard

Co-Author

With decades of experience in organizational transformation, Ken brings deep systems thinking and a passion for helping people see beyond superficial change. His perspective on the waves of transformative change and the human side of organizational evolution shapes the heart of this book.

JL

Jason Little

Co-Author • Founder, Lean Change Inc.

Author of Lean Change Management and Change Agility, Jason has been helping organizations around the world navigate change since the early 2010s. His practical, no-nonsense approach to sense-making over frameworks permeates every page of this guide.

Part of The Transformative Change Series. The companion book, Beyond Change Theater: From Big Ideas to Tough Questions, takes these ideas further. Visit sixbigideas.org for workshops, AI goodies, and more.

Available Now

Pick the format that works for you. Available in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook.

Common Questions

They're six sense-making models: The 2 Change Strategies, The 5 Waves of Transformative Change, The 3 Agilities, The 5 Universals of Change, The 5 Levers of Change, and The 4 Dimensions of Change. Each helps you diagnose different aspects of organizational change so you can respond thoughtfully rather than reactively.
No. It's the opposite. The 6 Big Ideas are sense-making tools, not a prescriptive playbook. There's no "right way" to use them. You combine them based on your context. Unlike frameworks, there are no steps to follow — only consequences of action to consider.
Change agents, agile coaches, organizational leaders, consultants, and anyone navigating complex organizational change. If you've ever thought "we keep doing the same thing and expecting different results," this book is for you.
That's intentional. This is a deliberately incomplete guide designed to give you just enough structure to start exploring. The authors kept it short so you'd spend more time applying the ideas than reading about them. The companion book, Beyond Change Theater, goes deeper.
The 6 Big Ideas is part of The Transformative Change Series, which builds on ideas from Lean Change Management and Change Agility. Where those books focus on practical tools and a manifesto-driven approach, this book zooms out to the sense-making models that inform when and how to use those tools.
Yes! The 6 Big Ideas is available as an audiobook on Audible, in addition to Kindle and paperback formats on Amazon.