t&i Model

The t&i Model is a versatile, principle-based approach for future ways of working.
Start with what fits your needs today—expand when you’re ready.

The model focused on the team level, the organizational level and the leadership level. It provides a wholistic view of principles, patterns and approaches to enable your organization with the culture, mindsets and behaviors necessary to organically grow in the Age of AI.

The t&i Model (t&i or tandi stands for “transcend and include”) follows a recommended sequence for optimal results, but can be adapted to your specific needs. Please do not hesitate to contact us for further clarification or free consultation and guidance for your specific context.

All the details about our t&i Model can be found in our t&i Foundation Pathway and t&i Transitions Pathway. Extra support is provided by our consultants via our t&i Evolution Pathway. Below you can explore high-level and completely free a few of the topics of the model. We hope that as you read, our model resonates with you.

Vision, Mission and Values

We always recommend starting here. What is the vision and mission? What are the values that hold people together and guide the leaders and the organisation? Understanding the long-term vision and current steps to get there is key for working in the next steps below. In terms of values, we normally recommend using the Competing Values Framework (CVF) to support the alignment of the values from the leaders and the rest of the organisation. This tool normally reflects the current status of the organisation and how the leaders want to approach the immediate context. On top of that, the leaders must understand their own stand in terms of delegation and leadership styles. Be transparent and clear on that, support clarity and avoid misunderstanding in the workforce.

The five, three, one-year strategy

As a second step, we recommend that everyone aligns on the long and short-term strategy. Everything that goes below is driven by these first two key points. We saw people trying to support teams and organisations and did not want to spend too much time on those. Please don’t do that. Understanding the vision, mission, strategy and especially the values of the leaders and the organisations is fundamental for everything that comes later.

The Explore and Exploit Continuum and the Lifecycle Stages

Looking at the business models, value streams, products, services or anything that your teams and organisation are focused on creating new growth engines or managing existing business(es). Another way to look at this is to understand the lifecycle stages of your value streams at the moment. Based on that, companies need different management practices, financial approaches, skills and even cultures. All of them are held under the same company that works both in the present and the future of the organisation.

Investment Horizons

No matter what your organisation is focused on, you will always find different types of work. From maintenance work to disruptive innovation. Where does the company decide to invest? There is no single bullet answer to this, each company and context is different but understanding where the leaders and the organisation are focused for the upcoming months and years will determine everything below this. So, please spend some time talking with the people who can answer and explain how funds are allocated.

Organisational Design

In this step, and after understanding all the above, it is a good moment to map the main value-stream domains in your organisation. Meaning, the main business models, and the main domains responsible for the current or future revenues. Who is responsible for discovering, building, maintaining, billing and collecting the business models in the organisation? Who is the customer? How do we reach them? How do they find us, our products or services? What are the skills necessary for all the above? Once we map all those questions, we can visualise different organisation designs taking into consideration constraints and how all together will support our strategy moving forward.

Types of Value Stream Domains

Different organisations look at their value streams in different ways. For example, are the value streams fully-integrated or fully-segregated? Something in between? Understanding this will help to define the best possible cadence. Yes, it is not only 2 weeks or 3 months the only options. There are myriad possibilities within those that might fit better for your specific context. Having all these steps in place, then we need to ask a very important question: How we will know that we are moving in the right direction? It is not only about great metrics like lead time or NPS. Each organisation, context, product, service, etc. needs specific goals and measurements that are unique to that situation on time. Defining those and how we will check and improve them is mandatory. It is important that we can measure success and the impact the t&i Model is having on the teams and organisations.

Circles

Some people call them teams, squads, or crews; we refer to them as circles, following Sociocracy. Sometimes, multiple circles form a team of teams, which we call domains, as described in the previous step. Supporting circles to become high-performing is a discipline of its own, requiring dedicated practices and continuous refinement. This aspect of the t&i Model is explored in more depth in our t&i Academy and consulting work.

Roles

In the Age of AI, people will likely have even more roles than they used to have before. We moved from specialisation to t-shape people and later to m-people. Especially with the support of AI teammates in your circles, we can see this trend even moving further. Hence, clarifying roles, time commitment, etc. become paramount for the good functioning of your teams and organisation and for the joy of each individual ;)

Stages of Development

The concept of Stages of Development, as outlined by Frederic Laloux in Reinventing Organizations, describes the evolutionary journey of organizations, each stage representing a distinct way of operating, managing, and understanding the world. These stages—Red, Amber, Orange, Green, and Teal—move from basic survival and power dynamics (Red), through hierarchical control and stability (Amber), achievement-driven and competitive systems (Orange), values-based and collaborative cultures (Green), to self-managing, purpose-driven, and adaptive organizations (Teal). Each stage builds upon the previous one, integrating new levels of complexity, consciousness, and innovation, reflecting broader human and societal development trends.