Low-Res Thinking (and how to move beyond it)

I have been noticing a certain type of thinking running through today’s change work. It isn’t lazy; it’s loyal ... Loyal to what used to work. I call it low-res thinking.

Like a pixelated image, it looks fine from far away. Up close, edges blur. We reach for familiar frameworks, wait for certainty before we move, and optimise for predictability in a landscape that has moved on.

This isn’t a moral failing. The ground is shifting fast. AI is rewriting how work gets done, budgets are tighter, and organisations can’t wait months for “proof of value”

By 2026, the pace and complexity will climb again. The better question isn’t “Which framework?” It’s “What am I missing that would change my next step?”

What low-res thinking sounds like

• “Let’s follow the model; it’s what we’ve always used”
• “We’ll act once we’ve proved it beyond doubt”
• “We just need stronger governance”
• “Our constraints won’t allow anything else"

Why does this kind of thinking stick

• Safety reflex: pressure rewards risk-avoidance and artefacts.
• Known-knowns bias: we solve for what we already know how to do.
• Inside-only view: limited view of what is working outside the current environment of the market, tech, and talent.
• Tool loyalty: frameworks become laws instead of lenses.

The cost

• Slow, safe moves that don’t change outcomes or maybe just a bit.
• Perfect documentation, maybe even green plans, but the real adoption has flattened, and every resistance under the sun starts showing
• Learning lag: insight arrives late

The shift to high-res

High-resolution thinking keeps safety and adds movement. It blends outside clues with inside realities, creates evidence before certainty, and makes decisions on visible signals, not polished decks.

Case Study: The Senior Director and the vendor choice

A Senior Director was selecting a vendor for a high-stakes technology program. Tech debt was heavy. Business value is enormous. Mid-flight failure would hurt.

The first instinct was protection: tighter governance, tighter contract, clauses sharpened to shield the client if the vendor faltered. Sensible and low-res: clear on blame, blurry on outcomes.

A mutual connection introduced us. In our first conversation, the real issue surfaced: they didn’t need a bigger fence. They needed a higher-resolution frame.

Shift 1: Protection → Partnership

We rewrote the brief to co-create the outcome. The proposal and ways of working became precise about:

• Risk surfacing and joint decision points.
• What “good” looks like in month one (artefacts, early signs, and decisions).
• Far more precise and detailed outcomes with clear principles of guidance
• How we’d handle surprises, rewarding early sign-raising over late heroics.

Shift 2: Don’t outsource the thinking. Get ahead of your vendor

Before any vendor arrived, we built the internal scaffolding so the client leads the vendor not the other way round:

• Circle of Change (What a change we are introducing, and how we will go about it, given the organisation's current maturity and change load).
• Design Principles (a clear set of design principles that guide the teams; delivery, thinking, and act as a clear set of rules that allows the team to check their thinking and work against them without the need to escalate upwards).
• Reverse KPIs: for every success metric, the shadow metric that would signal as an early warning sign of derailment
• Outcome Clarity Quadrant (will achieve / will not do / how we learn / how we decide when stuck.
• Success 360: defining success from a 360 point of view, not just for the different stakeholder groups, but also against the attributes of what a holistic and integrated successful program should achieve for the organisation.

Within weeks, this was a success, and the senior director and the team felt a lot more control.

“This work feels a lot more solid than what we have done. It actually feels good and I feel much more in control and confident we can make this work” Said the Senior Director

If this resonates, then let's have a conversation. I have capacity to work with a handful of leaders and their teams about how your program can capitalise on bigger and higher opportunities that allow you to be not just a doer but the leader. And not jsut the leader but a widely successful GO-TO leader.

⭐️ Inside The Transformation Leadership Institute: What Became Possible Last Week

Real work. Real outcomes. Here’s what leaders in our orbit made happen,fast

• Back in the arena: Worked 1:1 with a transformation leader to secure a new role. Moving from redundancy to Director of Strategy & Transformation Enablement in just two months.
• Building Team Foundations that stick: Helped a transformation team shape their team charter, values, and service offerings, ready for a strong 2026.
• Independent and winning: A 1:1 client closed a six-figure consulting deal in Dubai; a pivotal step in building their practice on their terms.
• OnTrack momentum: Delivered the OnTrack Masterclass; 27 leaders learning modern frameworks + Powerful AI tools to keep transformations on track and protect their reputation and career from being blindsided.
• Coaching Leaders: Two group coaching sessions inside TLI helped change leaders cut through noise and lead with clarity, calm, and conviction.

Why it matters: these aren’t just wins; they’re trajectory shifts. This is what's possible inside TLI and for members who invest in their career and impact to stand out from the crowd, and create the life they want without the job drama, redundancies or surviving paycheck to paycheck.

If you’re a transformation or change leader ready to step up and play the bigger game without overwhelm, only what works, and get your results accelerated... DM me with “TLI” and I’ll share more info.

Till next time,

Jess Tayel

Founder of the Transformation Leadership Institute and People of Transformation membership & community.

Enable organisations to become future-fit through their Transformations & Change efforts.

Elevate Change & Transformation high-performing leaders to soar above the sea of sameness and achieve new heights in mastery, influence, & impact without the drag of going solo or slow progression.

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