Where you actually stand
The situation named without flinching, including the feeling that comes with it, so you can tell what kind of moment this really is before you act.
The format
The leadership playbook, rebuilt around the situations you actually face
Not a course to finish or a library to browse. Forty leadership Playbooks, one for each situation you’re likely to meet this year, each naming a real moment in a sentence you’d actually say, then working it all the way through to your next move.
One free sample, open to everyone, no card, no sign-up.
What a leadership playbook is
A leadership playbook isn’t general advice, and it isn’t a module you work through once and file away. It’s one real situation, named in plain words, worked through end to end: where you stand, the behavioural choice in front of you, the exact tools in sequence, and the precedents of leaders who made the same call.
The idea borrows from the place the word came from. A playbook is what a team reaches for in the moment a particular thing happens, not something they read cover to cover, but something they open at the right page when the situation lands. What’s Next? takes that and points it at leadership: forty situations, forty pages, each ready the day you need it.
Why situation-specific beats a general library
Most leadership material is organised the way a textbook is, by topic. Feedback over here, strategy over there, difficult conversations in another tab. That’s fine when you’re studying. It’s useless at 8:40 on the morning the strategy just changed and you have to reset everything by Friday, because no topic is called that, and you don’t have an afternoon to assemble the answer from six chapters.
A Playbook is organised the way the day actually arrives: as a situation. You don’t search for a concept and translate it into action. You open the page that matches the thing in front of you, and the translation is already done. The work is in choosing the right Play for your team and carrying it out, not in finding the material.
That’s the whole bet. A general library asks you to be your own consultant. A situation-specific playbook does the consulting in advance, so the only thing left when the pressure is on is the move.
How each Playbook is built
Four parts, always in the same order, so you always know where you are.
The behavioural choice
Two stances, not one. The Play that suits a team under genuine pressure, and the Play that suits a team that only thinks it is. You choose.
The tools, in sequence
The exact moves for the Play you picked, in order, each one ending in a concrete next step rather than a principle to remember.
Leaders who made the call
What happened when others stood here, the times it worked, the times it half-worked, and the times it shouldn’t have been tried at all.
The forty situations
They group into seven domains, the seven kinds of moment a leader keeps meeting. Start with the one that matches your week:
- Strategy & direction, the reset, the one-page strategy, the “what’s your plan?” you don’t have yet.
- Meetings & decisions, the fourteen-person meeting, the hostile room, the decision you need today.
- Team & people, the inherited team, the open conflict, the feedback you’ve been putting off.
- Delivery & execution, the project slipping, the ship that isn’t ready, the plan B due tomorrow.
- Discovery & understanding, morale you can’t explain, a customer who won’t buy, things built and never used.
- Innovation & stuck, the team out of ideas, the options that all feel the same, the “be more innovative” with no brief.
- Measurement & review, which metrics matter, the retro that changes nothing, explaining the miss.
What managers get that a course or a general library doesn’t
The leaders who get the most from it tend to have the same job shape: they lead people, own a number, or carry a plan, and the next hard thing tends to arrive without warning. A course assumes you have time to learn before you need it. A library assumes you’ll do the assembly yourself. A Playbook assumes the situation is already on your desk.
So what you get isn’t more to read. It’s less, the right page, ready, the moment the situation lands, with the thinking already done and only the move left to make.
Start with the situation in front of you
Open the one Playbook you need today, or take the whole Library for the year ahead at the Founders’ rate. There’s a free sample to read in full first, no card, no sign-up.
Questions leaders ask first
How is a leadership playbook different from a leadership course?
A course is built to be completed before you need it; a Playbook is built to be opened the moment you do. There’s no curriculum and no order to work through. You go straight to the situation you’re in and act.
Do I have to subscribe to the whole Library?
No. You can buy a single Playbook for the situation on your desk today, subscribe for the full Library, or set your team up together. Pricing for all three is on the subscribe page.
Can I see one before I pay?
Yes, one Playbook is open in full to everyone, no card and no sign-up. Read “Plan after a miss” end to end.
Who is it for?
Leaders who’d rather be ready than reading around the problem, anyone who leads people, owns a number, or carries a plan and keeps meeting situations no topic is named after.