doing more with less: a workshop on turning systems thinking into systems doing
qb. co-hosted an informative session on how business architecture can provide structure to complex sustainability challenges—and recapped it for you below.
published 11.17.25
Selena Evans, attorney and founder of Ara Governance Advisory, and I designed this session because so many of us work in the messy middle: sustainability, risk, legal, compliance, procurement. And we’re asked to deliver big outcomes with small teams, shifting rules and not nearly enough connective tissue.
We don’t need more “admiring the problem.” We need a shared way of thinking that helps us act together.
At qb., we’re big believers in: We don’t need more “admiring the problem.” We need a shared way of thinking that helps us act together. That’s why we brought in Whynde Kuehn—to introduce business architecture as a practical, learnable frame. Think of business architecture as a common blueprint for how your organization creates value and manages risk, so strategy, data, policies and projects actually meet in the same room.
For stretched teams, business architecture can be how you do more with less by aligning around capabilities, making handoffs explicit and designing for the connections where work—and risk—really live.
If you watch one part of the recording, make it the case study walk-through (“The supplier we didn’t see coming” minute 27). Every function had “done its job,” yet the failure lived in the gaps—rushed onboarding, siloed data, unowned AI alerts, five reports to the board and no single picture. The takeaway: risk lives in the relationships, not the contracts.
Business architecture gives you a way to see—and fix—those relationships with clearer decision points, shared data flows and improved accountability.
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If this sparks ideas, bring it to your team. And if you want to learn more, check out Whynde’s spring course for sustainability pros) or reach out. We love talking about new ideas!
by Sam Hartsock
Strategy Lead + Cofounder
