I often find this role is misunderstood and, in my experience, one of the reasons “management” question the AAP. The reality is all of the decisions would’ve have happened anyway, just without the transparency and appropriate conversations happening. Take your pick, I know which I’d prefer.

All very boring isn’t it

100% this

We need to get better at working with complexity, not flattening it just to feel in control and “productive”. That’s where real judgment, and leadership live.

Anything less isn’t simplification, it’s avoidance. And in my book, that’s piss poor leadership.

It’s easier to follow a familiar metric than to re-engage with the messy, complex reality it once tried to represent.

The real danger? Once a metric’s in place, it builds inertia. It shapes how we talk, what we value, and what we ignore. Even when it’s no longer useful, we keep following it.

“Data-driven decisions” sound smart, but too often it just means letting incomplete or poorly framed data make the decision for us. We forget data is only ever a piece of the picture, useful, but never the whole story.

But in simplifying it all, we lose the nuance that actually matters. We stop thinking deeply, because the numbers look “fine.”

No easy fix, but it’s a cycle that keeps repeating. Would love to hear from folks who’ve seen this done well.

Maybe the answer isn’t big bang migrations but an evolution over revolution approach, gradually modernising and integrating systems instead of assuming a clean break will ever be realistic.

The result? Companies end up supporting multiple systems indefinitely, missing out on the efficiencies they aimed for.

It’s a pattern I see all the time. A company merges, or a new system is built. “All new customers will be on the new platform!” But what about the existing ones? Migration is always underestimated in complexity, cost, and risk. So it drags, or never happens.

Thank you for your AI generated response.

I can relate, I still hate being told what to do now, especially if I do no understand they why. 😅

With direct interaction, what if you reframe it from advice/instruct, to being curious and asking questions that make them think more deeply. Would that change your perspective on direct interaction?

Why do you think you lean that way?

We should. The other aspect to this is it’s part of our role to ensure the system they work within is not constraining. I.e. they feel they can. If the conditions are wrong we can encourage them all we want, but they won’t be able to.