Hi Reader,

Welcome to the 11th edition of the 3-2-1 (check out previous issues here).

I write about transforming ICs into Impact Contributors.

And today, we’re talking about the untapped intelligence sitting in every department of your organization.

Let’s get into it.

3 Things for Work (in L&D)

1. Andy Grove - Only the Paranoid Survive (Farnam Street)

• Grove called them “Cassandras.” Front-line employees and middle managers who spot risks and opportunities before senior leadership does. He built forums at Intel where these warnings could reach the top regardless of hierarchy.
• 🏋 Effort ≈ 45 min listen

2. Stop Promoting the Wrong People into Manager Roles (HBR)

• 1 in 4 managers would prefer not to be people managers. 79% of organizations promote based on past IC performance, but only 22% assess whether the person actually wants to manage. Instead of developing ICs’ strategic capabilities, we promote them into roles they never asked for.
• 🏋 Effort ≈ 7 min read

3. Psychological Safety Is a Requirement, Not a Luxury (HBR)

• A study of 27,000 workers found that increasing psychological safety reduced burnout and improved retention, with the biggest impact on groups historically discouraged from speaking up. If your people don’t feel safe raising concerns, your early warning system is broken.
• 🏋 Effort ≈ 6 min read

2 Things for Life

1. A Reminder For Parents​

• My daughter turned two last week. Then I saw this video and cried. Sometimes parenthood hits you in waves you don’t expect.

2. An 80-Year-Old Looks Back

• I’m in a nostalgic mood for the present. Is that a thing? I saw this spoken-word poem about an 80-year-old looking back on their life, and my eyes filled up again. It transported my mind into the future, so I could look back on the present as it slips by. It helps me enjoy it more.

1 Idea from Me

Your Cassandras are already in the building.

Andy Grove called them Cassandras. Employees on the front lines who see risks and opportunities before anyone in the C-suite does.

They’re closest to customers. Closest to the product. Closest to the market shifts that will reshape the business in 18 months.

Your ICs and front-line managers are your early warning system.

But most of them can’t do anything with what they see.

They have the hunch. They don’t have the tools.

Last edition I wrote about the ownership gap. Companies tell ICs to “be owners,” but don’t equip them on how.

This is what that gap costs you.

They don’t know who to talk to. They don’t know how to align stakeholders before walking into the room. They can’t structure a recommendation that lands with executives who think in different terms.

So the insight dies quietly. Or worse, they share it once, get shut down, and stop trying.

Now multiply that across every IC (and middle manager) in your organization. How many strategic insights are you losing every quarter because the people closest to the problem couldn’t make themselves heard?

It’s not just engagement scores and retention risk. It’s lost intelligence. Strategic blind spots that didn’t need to exist.

The fix isn’t more town halls or suggestion boxes. It’s building the capability to turn a hunch into a recommendation. Seek the right information. Make sense of what you find. Share it in a way that moves the people who can act.

The question isn’t whether your Cassandras exist. It’s whether you’re equipping them to be heard.

That’s it for this week. Enjoy your Sunday!

I’ll be back in two weeks ✌️

Andrew

P.S. 👉 If your organization is sitting on untapped IC intelligence and you want to do something about it, hit reply. I can offer a free 30-minute strategy call to help you think through what’s missing.