I have always been interested in how things connect.

My career has taken me through analysis, process improvement, projects, governance, strategy, change and technology. For a while, I worried that breadth made for a slightly untidy professional story. Eventually, I realised it was the story.

Organisations divide work into functions because they have to. Their problems are rarely so obliging.

A strategic decision can create workforce pressures. Technology can change roles, relationships and accountability. Governance can enable good decisions or quietly make them harder. A well-designed initiative can struggle because the conditions around it were never designed to support it.

These experiences increasingly changed how I thought about my own role. I did not want breadth simply to know more things. I wanted to use it to help other people see problems differently, test their thinking and make stronger decisions.

I do not believe every problem needs a grand framework, and I am suspicious of complexity for complexity's sake. The point is to see enough of the system to make a better decision, then do something useful with what we learn.

That is the kind of sparring partner I stive to be.