Praxis

Praxis Labs

Practical labs in which organisations and professionals work on real execution problems, supported by the research. Each lab adds evidence to the Institute's knowledge.

In a session

The team brings the problem.
The lab brings the method.

Each session brings together the people who execute the strategy, a facilitator from the Institute, and data collected before and after the lab.

What a Praxis Lab is

Real work, with method and measurement

A Praxis Lab starts from a problem the organisation has, not from a curriculum. The table shows how it differs from the Academy.

Criterion	Praxis Lab	Academy
Who we work with	An organisation, or a team inside one	An individual
Starting point	A real execution problem the organisation has	A learning programme
What you get	A problem worked through, plus research data	Skills and recognition
Feeds into	The research: every lab is also a case study	Professional development and the network

Entangled mangrove roots at the water's edge

How we think

Entangled problems

In a mangrove, the roots hold each other up and you cannot tell where one tree ends and the next begins. Many execution problems are like that: splitting them into parts, as linear thinking would, destroys the very connections that explain them. In Praxis Labs we work on the whole system.

Snowden & Boone (2007), Harvard Business Review

How it works

Four phases, measured before and after

The facilitator works mainly through the Socratic method. Rather than bringing ready-made answers, they ask questions that lead the team to examine its assumptions, test its explanations against data and reach its own conclusions. The four phases rest on that foundation.

Diagnose
We measure the starting point: clarity of priorities, review routines and decision capacity.
Design
With the team, we define the interventions and, before starting, what we will measure.
Execute
The organisation applies the interventions in its daily work, with regular support from the Institute.
Measure and publish
We compare against the starting point and publish the case, anonymised where needed.

What we ask of the organisation

A sponsor on the executive committee
A dedicated team for the duration of the lab
Access to the performance data needed
Participation in before-and-after measurement

Data and confidentiality

Informed consent from every participant
Anonymisation of individuals and, on request, of the organisation
Review by the organisation before anything is published
Data handled in line with applicable law

Themes

Lab themes

Each theme is linked to a question on the research agenda.

Linked to RQ1

Clarity of priorities

Reduce a strategy to a few priorities and make sure every level understands them the same way.

Linked to RQ2

Review cadence

Design and test a rhythm of execution meetings that produces decisions rather than reports.

Linked to RQ2 · RQ3

Decisions and accountability

Clarify who decides what, and how accountability is tracked during execution.

Apply

Propose a Praxis Lab

We are looking for organisations with a concrete execution challenge and the willingness to measure. Describe the situation in a few lines.

Propose a lab