Interactive courses
The standard, made learnable.
Short, interactive courses — one per chapter of The Control Standard. Built to teach the standard on its own, even if you've never read the book. Retrieval practice, worked examples, and a bridge to the chapter assessment at the end of each one.
Reading is not the same as running.
The portal exists to help you turn drift into visible control on real work. The courses exist to make sure the moves the portal asks for are ones you've actually practised — not just words you've read past.
Retrieve, don't re-read
Every course interleaves retrieval questions, scenario decisions, and worked examples — the moves that actually move knowledge into action.
Bridges to the work
Each course ends with the matching chapter assessment and a clear cue back into the portal — score a project, set a control point, file a clean note.
Stand-alone, by design
You don't need to have read the book first. The courses introduce the language of the standard from scratch, then signpost the book if you want the deeper read.
What's in the catalogue
Available now.
New courses are added as each chapter is authored. Progress is tracked per sub-module and resumes where you left off.
Course 0
FreeOrientation
Set the scene. Why 'under control' is a narrow, useful word — and what the rest of the standard is going to keep coming back to.
- 01 What this standard is, and who it's for · 8 min
Course 1
FreeChapter 1 — The Drift Tax
Name the recurring cost of work that drifts: late surprises, rework, status theatre. Learn to spot drift in your own week before the standard tries to fix it.
- 01 Busy is not the same as controlled · 13 min
- 02 The seven shapes of drift · 13 min
- 03 The drift tax — the bill you're already paying · 14 min
- 04 Why drift grows unseen · 14 min
Course 2
Paid planChapter 2 — What Under Control Actually Means
Tell apart an update that describes work from one that controls it. Define a control point in your own words, then practise it on real-looking scenarios.
- 01 From description to control · 13 min
- 02 The four control points · 18 min
- 03 Running the control test on a real item · 18 min
- 04 Bad news early, surprise late · 14 min
Course 3
Paid planChapter 3 — Ownership Is More Than Task Completion
Plenty of work gets delivered on time and still fails. This course draws the line between touching a task and carrying an outcome, and turns ownership into behaviours you can see.
- 01 Touching the task, carrying the outcome · 14 min
- 02 The four behaviours of real ownership · 12 min
- 03 Act from remit, not from instruction · 13 min
- 04 Ownership that scales, not ownership that hoards · 14 min
Course 4
Paid planChapter 4 — Executive Usefulness
Most updates describe activity. The useful ones cut a busy reader's uncertainty in one pass. Turn your written and spoken updates into something a manager can act on without a second meeting.
- 01 Describe vs reduce uncertainty · 12 min
- 02 The six-question shape of a useful update · 12 min
- 03 The "so what?" rule and bringing recommendations · 14 min
- 04 Useful in the room, useful at range · 14 min
Course 5
Paid planChapter 5 — The Control Toolkit
The operational core of the standard. Name what you are protecting, find the seven places drift hides, set cadence, escalate early, and make control legible enough that nobody has to ask how the work is going.
- 01 Know what you're protecting · 14 min
- 02 The seven places drift hides · 13 min
- 03 Make control visible at a glance · 14 min
- 04 Cadence as a control mechanism · 12 min
- 05 Escalation as a first-class skill · 14 min
- 06 Protect the commercial shape, not just the delivery shape · 13 min
- 07 A shared definition of good, and why invisible control still loses · 16 min
Course 6
Paid planChapter 6 — From Task Thinking to System Thinking
When the same problem keeps coming back, the fault is rarely the person. Shift from 'who dropped this?' to fixing the handoffs, decision rights and standards that keep reproducing the drift.
- 01 From "who dropped this?" to "what in the system?" · 11 min
- 02 Telling one-offs from patterns · 11 min
- 03 Where the system actually lives · 14 min
- 04 System thinking before system authority · 14 min
Course 7
Paid planChapter 7 — Leading a System, Not Routing Tasks
Routing tasks feels productive and quietly stops your team growing. Learn to lead a system instead — delegation that holds, intent over permission, and knowing when to step in and when to step back.
- 01 Router vs leader — the diagnostic · 11 min
- 02 Intent, not permission (manager seat) · 13 min
- 03 Delegation that holds · 14 min
- 04 Step in, step back, watch your altitude · 12 min
- 05 Being led, and helping your manager lead · 13 min
Course 8
Paid planChapter 8 — Coaching That Builds the Standard
Coaching is how the standard gets into other people. The test: do they work better when you are not in the room? Coach the thinking, name your mode, and pair candour with care.
- 01 The coaching test · 15 min
- 02 Four tools, used deliberately · 13 min
- 03 Coach the thinking, not the output · 14 min
- 04 Candour and care — Pixar’s Braintrust · 14 min
- 05 Coach in real moments · 13 min
Course 9
Paid planChapter 9 — Turn Repeated Problems Into System Improvement
'Be more careful' is not a mechanism. Turn repeated problems into durable fixes — the threshold question, the eight levers, blameless reviews, and designing the fix before the pattern arrives.
- 01 Pattern to mechanism, and the threshold question · 12 min
- 02 The eight levers · 13 min
- 03 Blameless but accountable — the short honest review · 13 min
- 04 Making the mechanism stick · 14 min
- 05 Designing before the pattern arrives · 16 min
Course 10
Paid planChapter 10 — The Pocket Standard
The whole standard in one place, then run on a real week. A capstone that pulls control, ownership, executive usefulness, coaching and system improvement into one Thursday-afternoon decision.
- 01 The standard, in one place · 14 min
- 02 Run the standard on your own week · 13 min
More courses ship as the chapters are authored. Subscribers get every new course as it lands — no extra charge.
Try it for nothing
Orientation + Chapter 1 are free, forever.
Create a free account and run Course 0 (Orientation) and Course 1 (The Drift Tax) end-to-end. The rest of the catalogue unlocks on any paid plan.