After and alongside the book

Keep the questions open.

A glossary, a practical exercise and a record of changes to this companion. Start with a question from your own work.

An exercise for individuals or teams

A deliberate delegation

Choose one specific task. Fill in the six fields, discuss your choices, then compare the result with what happened in practice. This is a discussion aid inspired by the book, not a validated assessment or a maturity score.

See a completed example (illustrative, not a real case study)

Task and intended result: Prepare a summary of a public report for an internal meeting.
What you delegate to AI: A first draft with page references. No automatic sending.
Permitted data and sources: Only the approved report. No personal or confidential data.
What you verify and against which criteria: Check figures, quotations and conclusions against the document, including what was omitted.
Who is accountable for the result: The person presenting the summary reads the original report and approves the final version.
When to stop and take control back: If a source is missing, the document is ambiguous or a conclusion cannot be checked, stop and reread the passage.

1. Task and intended result2. What you delegate to AI3. Permitted data and sources4. What you verify and against which criteria5. Who is accountable for the result6. When to stop and take control back

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Read about cognitive delegation →

A glossary for the journey

Short working definitions. Entries describing my concepts are identified as such; each links to a chapter for context.

Find a term

RAG: Generation using documents retrieved from an external source as context. Retrieval does not remove the need to verify. Read in context →
SLM: A relatively small language model. Size alone does not determine fitness for a task. Read in context →
Agency and delegation: The capacity to act in a context. The book uses organisational delegation to discuss goals, constraints and oversight. Read in context →
Metacognition: Reflecting on how we know and on the limits of our judgement: recognising when we cannot verify. Read in context →
Cognitive drift: In my interpretive model, a gradual shift from AI support to dependence on its judgement. Not a clinical diagnosis. Read in context →
Qualified cognitive surrender: Deliberate delegation: choosing the task, retaining checks and knowing when to take judgement back. Read in context →
System 0: A theoretical lens on external systems contributing to human thought; not a newly identified brain region. Read in context →
Onto-ethics: In the book’s argument, reflection on what the actors in a system are and what responsibilities follow from their roles. Read in context →
Epistemic security: Conditions for knowing the origin, limitations and verifiability of information used in decisions. Read in context →
Split habitus: Tension between learned dispositions and a different social context. The book uses it to interpret adaptation. Read in context →
A(I)DOPTION: About me’s proposed method for organisational AI adoption. A working approach, not a certification. Read in context →
A(I)DAPTATION: The continuing practice of revisiting habits and responsibilities after AI is introduced. Read in context →

Companion changelog

What has changed

17 / 10 / 2026

A more useful reading companion

Searchable index, clearer chapter connections, references cited in my book, a glossary and a delegation worksheet. The summaries on value, data, agents and cognition have been revised to distinguish interpretation from evidence.

This records changes to the website. It does not announce a new edition or amendments to the printed book.

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For readers, teachers and organisers

Talk about the book

For a presentation, reading group or review, these materials provide a starting point. Contact me to discuss participation or permissions.

Short synopsis

In Complexity & Systems of Meaning I examine how AI changes professional judgement, expertise and responsibility. Across twelve chapters and two appendices, I connect organisational transformation with the experience of people who delegate parts of their work to artificial systems.

About me

I work at the boundary between consulting, applied research and teaching. For almost thirty years, as a Partner at EY, I have supported organisations and leaders through deep transformations. I teach management control, Big Data, analytics and artificial intelligence at universities and business schools.

Three questions for a discussion

When does delegation become a loss of judgement?
What separates adopting a tool from changing an organisation?
Who is responsible when the work is hybrid?

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