The route

Six stages, and each one ends in something you can show.

Each stage says what to do, who does it, how long it takes, what it takes from your people, and what you end up with. The last line says how you know it is done.

Take the amplification checkRead the six areas
A white-studio render: a broad white staircase of clean treads rising out of the frame, with one chrome sphere resting on an upper tread.
Six stages, one staircase
01The six stages

Six stages, because each one makes the material the next one needs.

None of them needs a platform, a consultant, or an agreement about when the machines get better.

Think of it as a tower with six floors, one staircase and no elevator. Each landing hands you something to carry up: a list, a register, a signature, a redesigned job, a shipped thing, a record.

  1. 01

    Name the ambition

    Do
    The chief executive names one executive who owns amplification, in writing. The two of them draft a one-page charter: what that person decides, what they report to the board, and how often. Then build the attempt list. Every line leader submits ten projects their area declined in the last three years, with the reason and the old price. Separately, write down what the company will never build at any price.
    Who
    The chief executive signs. The named executive owns the list. Every line leader contributes.
    Time and people
    Two weeks. Estimated: four hours of the chief executive’s time, half a day from each line leader, two days from the named executive.
    You end up with
    A signed one-page charter. A dated attempt list, one page per line leader, ten projects each, every line carrying an owner and an old price.
    Done when
    The board has seen the name of the person who owns this, and every entry names a person and a price.
  2. 02

    Write it down, then try it

    Do
    Build the register: one row for every piece of work whose result drives a decision about money, safety, a contract or the law. Start with the ten rows carrying the most money. Each row names its owner, what a machine could do, what judgment stays human, and a review date. Ask your people which AI tools they already use, and say plainly that this is for finding out. A Federal Reserve staff note of 3 April 2026 found three official surveys of one economy reporting adoption at 18, 41 and 78 percent. Each had asked a different person. Then confirm in writing that the supplier will not train on your data. Hand a model ten to twenty real tasks from last quarter, and one item off the attempt list. Grade every result against the standard you already use.
    Who
    The named executive owns the register. Line leaders own their rows. A checker who did not choose the work grades it.
    Time and people
    Ten weeks. Estimated: one person at about half time on the register, a day from each line leader, two days from the checker.
    You end up with
    A register you can put on the table within the hour, with the transcripts filed against its rows. The graded cases become a private set of examples you own, and one declined project has shipped or honestly failed.
    Done when
    You can name three things the machine does to your standard, and three where the result looks right and is not.
  3. 03

    Name the human, and open the record

    Do
    Put a named person on every row that matters, so somebody can say yes: whoever a permit or regulation names, otherwise the row’s owner. Decide in writing that any employee may halt a machine-run process through a named channel, without asking first. Every halt is logged by name. Write the demotion rule before you need it: after a serious incident, the process needs a person’s approval on every action until it is reviewed. Then open the record. It has six columns: the call, how likely, by when, what would prove it wrong, who made it, and the score when the answer arrives.
    Who
    The named executive owns the rules. Line leaders assign a chooser, a checker and a signer, never the same name twice.
    Time and people
    Six weeks, running alongside stage two. Estimated: three days from the named executive, half a day from each line leader.
    You end up with
    A signature and a halt channel on every row that matters. A demotion rule dated before the first incident, and a record with entries in it.
    Done when
    You can show the last time a person halted a machine, with the log entry. One call has been scored wrong, and you know what changed.
  4. 04

    Redesign the job around one person

    Do
    Pick two or three teams. In each, redesign one job so one person carries it from the idea to the finished thing. Machines work in parallel behind them. Redesign means the work is done differently: if the handoffs survive, nothing has changed. Fund the honest costs: the learning curve, the checking time, the changes further down the line. Write one paragraph the chief executive will repeat: what happens to the hours this frees, and where those people go next. Send it before the redesign starts.
    Who
    Line leaders own the redesigns. The chief executive signs the paragraph, and repeats it.
    Time and people
    Ten weeks. Estimated: a day a week from each team leader running a redesign, and an afternoon from the chief executive. The people in the redesigned jobs are doing their own work, not extra work.
    You end up with
    Two or three jobs genuinely redesigned, with before-and-after evidence of how the work used to be staffed. One paragraph, sent, about where the freed hours go.
    Done when
    One piece of work that used to need a team shipped this quarter, carried by one named person.
  5. 05

    Stand up the unit, and ship

    Do
    Stand a small unit beside the existing business, with its own profit and loss. Hand it the attempt list, re-priced at today’s cost. Fund only what comes in far under the old price. Ship something real every thirty days, and say at the start of each month what it will be.
    Who
    The chief executive charters the unit, and the named executive staffs it. The board reads its numbers separately.
    Time and people
    Six months. Estimated: three to five people seconded full time, and about a day a month from the named executive.
    You end up with
    A unit with its own numbers. A dated line for each month it ran, saying what shipped or what was honestly stopped, and why.
    Done when
    The unit has shipped something off the declined list in three of the six months, and every month has a written outcome. The board has seen the unit’s numbers on a page of their own.
  6. 06

    Make it compound

    Do
    Widen a machine’s room to act when the record earns it, and narrow it after any serious incident. If no incident has triggered the demotion rule, run a drill. Rebuild the apprenticeship: juniors direct machines on real, bounded work under supervision, and a supervisor signs it. That is now how senior judgment gets made. Grow the private set of examples every quarter. Once a year, replace the model under a live job and record the hours it took. Report to the board once a year, including what the work was wrong about.
    Who
    The named executive owns the rhythm. The board’s audit committee receives the annual report.
    Time and people
    Ninety days for the first turn, then every ninety days. Estimated: a week of the named executive’s time per turn, half a day from each line leader.
    You end up with
    A dated annual report carrying the reading, the attempt rate, the scored calls, the timed replacement and last year’s mistakes.
    Done when
    A junior did real supervised work this quarter and a supervisor signed it. The second reading sits beside the first.

What to do. Start stage one this week: write one name, and ask each line leader for their ten declined projects.

02The first ninety days

Ninety days covers the first three stages, and sets the beat for the rest.

Stages one to three fit inside a quarter. Stage four takes ten weeks, stage five the six months after it, and stage six carries on from there.

The first ninety days cost about four hours of the chief executive’s time and two days from each line leader. The named executive spends about a week on it, and one person carries the register at roughly half time. Nothing else is bought. These are estimates from the work each stage asks for, not measurements.

Ninety days is also the beat the route keeps afterwards. Every quarter the register is re-read and the declined list is priced again. Each turn costs less, because the examples and the graded cases are yours.

A white-studio render: three concentric white rings lying at an angle, with one chrome sphere sweeping around the outermost ring behind a glass trail.
Ninety days, one turn
Ninety days · stages one to three
  1. Day 0One name, signedThe chief executive names who owns this. The charter is drafted.
  2. Day 14The attempt list standsTen declined projects from every line leader, each with an owner and an old price.
  3. Day 30The first ten rowsThe register opens on the work carrying the most money.
  4. Day 45Names and a halt channelA signer on every row that matters, and a way to halt a machine.
  5. Day 63Transcripts filedReal tasks handed over, graded against your own standard.
  6. Day 90One thing off the listA declined project shipped or honestly failed. The reading is run again.
The first ninety days · stage three runs alongside stage two

What to do. Put day ninety in the calendar before you start day one, with the name of whoever brings the register.

03Your first two weeks

Ten working days, and about four hours of your own time.

Print this. It is stage one, broken into pieces you can do between other things.

  • Day one, twenty minutes. Write one name: the person who will own amplification. Tell them in writing, copy the board, then take the check and print the reading.
  • Day two, thirty minutes. Draft the charter together. One page: what they decide, what they report, how often.
  • Day three, one message. Ask every line leader for ten declined projects, with the reason and the old price.
  • Day four, twenty minutes. Ask your people which AI tools they already use. Say that it is for finding out, not for discipline.
  • Day five, thirty minutes. Write down what the company will never build at any price, in your own words.
  • Days eight and nine, two hours. Put the returned projects into one list, an owner and an old price on every entry. Re-price the ten largest at today’s cost.
  • Day ten, fifteen minutes. Name who carries the first attempt, and put a date ninety days out to run the check again.
  • Total: about four hours across ten working days.

What to do this week: the first two lines only. Write the name, and send the request for the declined projects.

04Continuity

A bigger bet needs a foundation you can replace.

The one plan of its kind here

It is sized like the plan you already hold for power.

You will not build your most ambitious thing on a foundation you cannot replace. That is the only reason this section exists. It is not a reading of what you can attempt, and not in the Index.

How to know which work this is. Go down the register and mark the rows where a supplier failure would stop the business or hurt somebody. That is usually a short list. For those rows, write down four things.

  1. Who notices that the supplier has gone.
  2. What runs instead, and for how long it carries the work.
  3. How long the alternative takes to stand up, timed rather than guessed.
  4. Who decides to invoke it.

Then check two things. Your main supplier and your alternative have to be able to fail on different days. A shared region, network or sign-on service makes that answer no. And compare the shortest notice any supplier promises against the time your last timed replacement took. Published notice floors, read from the suppliers’ own pages in September 2026, run from two weeks to six months. One supplier’s published policy promises at least sixty days, and states that requests after that date will fail. Another publishes no minimum at all, only the earliest date a model might go.

Rehearse once a year and record the hours. It sits at the side of the work, not at the center. It protects the ambition. It does not measure it.

What to do. Mark the rows on the register that would stop the business, and book the rehearsal.

Six questions in five minutes. All thirty-six in twenty.

Take the amplification check