This model has been called a lot of things, but my favourite name has to be ‘Norm’s hockey rink model’, coined by someone who obviously never played hockey, but we can see their point nonetheless. It originated from some intense facilitation and rapid flipchart sketching at The Briars resort in 1991, where the executives responsible for Ontario Hydro’s New Business Ventures division and I were re-conceiving and preparing to launch what would become Ontario Hydro International, the first of many spin-offs to emerge out of that massive utility.

I prefer to call it my own variation on a professional firm model, and it has proven immensely valuable at helping leaders to break through bureaucratic patterns and structures in such diverse settings as universities, government agencies, police and emergency services, private sector HR, marketing and sales teams, and yes, even at some professional firms.