Intro

Introduction - Same Cheese, Three Realities

This case study follows the same situation three times.

Nothing about the business changes. Nothing about the people changes. Nothing about the pressure changes.

Only one thing varies: how the problem is handled.

Eclectic Cheese Shop is not incompetent. The people involved are not stupid. No one is malicious, lazy, or trying to do the wrong thing. They are busy, under pressure, and surrounded by partial information.

Which is exactly when most organisations do their worst thinking.

In Part I, the problem moves through the organisation by osmosis. Messages mutate. Signals degrade. Everyone reacts. Nothing improves.

In Part II, the problem is finally written down - confidently, clearly, and incorrectly. Interpretation sneaks in. Solutions arrive early. The document looks productive and explains almost nothing.

In Part III, the same people slow down just enough to describe what is actually happening, without explaining it, fixing it, or dressing it up. Fewer words. Less certainty. A better outcome.

This is not a story about cheese.

It’s a story about how meaning collapses - and how rarely anyone notices until it’s too late.

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