Staying connected is a skill
Some people keep others present inside them, even when you are not there right now. With others, you fade as soon as you have disappeared from the room, the chat, their life.
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Your question to the AI is the bottleneck, not the model
When it comes to choosing an AI model, I hear deliberate decisions in very few conversations. Instead, it is either habit or “use the best one” (out of fear that otherwise it won't be “good enough”).
Cultural stagnation: “You & AI” instead of “AI first”
I recently described what using AI without a high level of awareness does: I become less critical and have less access to my creative abilities.
Outsourcing thinking to AI? Think about it
What AI does to our judgment: cognitive debt through AI
Incommensurability
How do you deal with incommensurability? I stumbled over this word because it named something I had been circling for years without being able to put it into language.
Really good at solving the wrong problems
If you are a senior leader, you have probably become really good at solving problems.
As what is a child wanted?
As what were you wanted as a child?
Hands on the wheel, and the mask comes off
We are what we are. Always.
Decision Audits: clarity before the decision is made
Many bad decisions come about not because options are assessed wrongly, but because it is unclear what actually needs to be decided.
Do you make good decisions?
Decision-makers in important roles in particular often decide quickly and routinely. What is rarely looked at are the contexts in which these decisions arise.
At the threshold between power and relationship
You recognize something because you expect relationship.
Meta-systemic, trans-systemic, poly-systemic: what guidance in complex organizations achieves in practice
I was asked what I mean when I say that my guidance is meta-systemic. So I want to describe what that achieves in practice—and why the term alone is often not enough.
The existential side of developmental maturity
There is a misunderstanding about developmental maturity.
How to sense whether someone can truly hold you
Sometimes it takes us a while to show ourselves. In many spaces we quickly close up again.
Overlooked leadership functions that master complexity
In uncertain times, a form of leadership emerges that is rarely named but is vital to the survival of organizations.
Prerequisites for an integral We
When people truly connect with one another, something happens that is greater than the sum of the individuals.
When we trick ourselves: 4 ways of not looking
I know this well: Something hits me, and before I even consciously notice it, I have already shut down.
My new website (Sept. 2025)
I have now finished my new profile website and put it on the domain patrickschmid.info.
Steering beats structure
In organizational development, we talk a lot about organizational structure (org charts, roles) and process organization (processes, workflows).
Leadership (mis)understanding
Again and again, I see leadership being misunderstood.
Change is not development
In many companies, “transformation” is currently showing. A real blockbuster.
Who do I resemble right now?
“Who do I resemble right now?” That is one of the most effective questions I ask myself in challenging moments.
Development does not end
We often act as if life were settled once school, vocational training, or university is over—“finished” and grown up.
AI and the evolution of thinking: from storytelling to manipulating reality
I keep thinking about how our thinking is changing (and has changed)—and with it, what holds meaning for us
The thing about the carrot
We all have carrots that we run after. It is in our nature: we fixate.
The thing about transformation
Quick to understand. Slow to become.
From communication to leadership design
In recent years, I have moved from hands-on implementation work toward “enabling” (enablement).
Development as an egg
I spend a lot of time on development: personal, systemic, organizational. And yet: some impulses work beyond theory or method.
Founding or birth, seen anew
A change of perspective: founding or birth, seen anew.
Why leadership programs often have little effect
Why leadership programs miss their mark. I regularly analyze programs, models, and job profiles in the context of leadership and organizational development.
Connectedness
In times of uncertainty, connectedness beyond roles and results can be the most valuable thing we can give.
Unconscious self-sabotage in companies
Self-sabotage in companies, or contradictory communication: You have surely come across these forms of operational blindness yourself.
Exit and transformation
Stepping out of [x] (explanation below) opens the door to new perspectives.
When autonomous driving becomes interesting to me
Autonomous driving. Child's play, really.
Spiritual meta-programs
I first consciously noticed and made sense of the term meta-programs in one of my NLP trainings.
The gaze
I am sitting in my favorite café. Across from me sit parents with their daughter, who is sitting in a stroller.
The path
When you walk, you may notice that it goes uphill. If you are attentive, you make out a destination, there in the distance, farther up.
Consciousness and levels of development
Consciousness and Spiral Dynamics. Thoughts from #personaldevelopment to #consciousnessdevelopment; shortened in structure, content, and emotion.
Criteria dimensioning: not thought through
We have all experienced it: “product tests” or comparisons fall short and are of only limited use.