Raising the Bar of What's Possible - Al Shalloway

CoLab Book Club - October 2026

Our September #CoLabBookClub pick was a bit different. John Allen brought us a sneak peek at Raising the Bar of What's Possible: Overcoming the Learned Helplessness Plaguing Modern Organizations and Communities by Al Shalloway. The book is still in draft but as Al is well known to a few of us from his many years in the lean and agile world, we were keen to have an early read.

Overview

Al asks a big question: why do capable, hardworking people so often settle for results they know aren't good enough? His answer is learned helplessness. It's not a lack of effort or skill but a system outcome. When people repeatedly learn that pushing back doesn't change anything, the question quietly shifts from "what's possible?" to "what's allowed?".

Part I explains how this happens in any organisation, including five reinforcing forces: beliefs about what's possible, fear and self-limitation, management control, culture and how change is taught. Part II applies the thinking to agile and product development, and argues that practices without theory can recreate the very limits they're meant to remove.

Our Key Takeaways

✔️ Explain the why, not just the rules. Al's story of Ignaz Semmelweis really landed with us. His handwashing rule saved lives but was rejected because there was no germ theory to back it up.
✔️ Culture is a byproduct. You can't declare a new culture into existence. It follows from changing processes, feedback loops and the questions we ask.
✔️ Watch out for failure demand. A lot of effort goes into managing recurring problems rather than fixing their root cause.
✔️ Start small. The Agency Flywheel shows how small, visible wins build confidence and make the next step easier.
✔️ Make the "impossible" visible. Unpick what actually happened in past attempts rather than accepting "that'll never get approved."
✔️ It fits the puzzle. We saw strong links to Amy Edmondson's work on psychological safety, Leadership is Language and the flow books we've read.

To be honest, the term "learned helplessness" sparked a lively debate. We decided that while it's helpful to have the label, we wouldn't use it out loud to our clients!

Who is it For?

It's for consultants, leaders, change agents and anyone expected to improve outcomes without the authority to change the conditions producing them. We realised that's a much bigger group than we first thought.

Thank you!

Thank you Alan Shalloway for sharing your work in progress with us and for giving us language for something so many of us have seen but struggled to name. We're looking forward to the finished book.

Thanks to this month's #CoLabBookClub crew: Alfred Enslin, John R. Allen (host), Kat Debney, Paul Salmon, Pete Tansey, Peter Bink and Toni Wilson. It was a great conversation with plenty of real-world stories!

#CoLabBookClub #BookReview #AgileLeadership #LearnedHelplessness #SPsychologicalSafety #SystemsThinking