When the team first gathered around the table, the mood was oddly familiar for this organisation, so a mix of exhaustion and cautious optimism. We'd been here before and everyone agreed they were facing a something tricky, but no one could quite name it. Finance stakeholders spoke in numbers, the Change community in boxes and emotions, Strategy in clouds and visions. It wasn’t that people disagreed; they simply couldn’t see the same picture. The room was full of expertise yet short of shared meaning. That was the moment Strategy, what became our prime lens, asked a deceptively simple question: “What if we could see it all at once?”
They began to sketch. Teamwork colleagues translated words into lines and shapes; Change gave permission for discomfort to surface. Slowly, fragments of disconnected language merged into a single visual on the whiteboard, what was to become the first Comet visual.
People leaned in. For the first time, they could trace how their own needs and ambitions pulled against the other drivers in the room, where Finance constrained innovation, and where Learning had no landing place. The map wasn’t perfect, but it was alive and we were off and running. It was now about possibility, a picture of motion and energy rather than hierarchy and silos.
Something shifted. The moment they could see the Comet, energy replaced confusion. They realised that progress didn’t come from adding more plans but from aligning existing ones. The Comet became our metaphor for movement: Strategy as the core, Teamwork and Change as supporting forces, the other Specialisms trailing as a living tail of momentum. This wasn’t a workshop; it was ignition. They had built the first orbit of understanding.
As the meeting closed, someone asked, “What happens when the Comet gathers speed?!” and I think they meant out of control?!
“That’s the series we’re about to tell.” Over the coming stories, each Specialism will take its turn at the centre: Finance learning to fuel motion, Learning turning reflection into rhythm, Performance measuring the meaningful, and so on until the Comet meets impact and produces real Wicked Outcomes. For now, the team leaves the room lighter, clearer, and connected by a shared picture that didn’t exist an hour ago. They have seen the Comet and for this organisation it didn't come around that often! And once you’ve seen it, you can’t unsee it.
