Your playbook is lying to you.

THE OPS BRIEF — Issue #1

Your weekly dose of operational intelligence for program managers who prefer clarity over noise.

THIS WEEK'S THOUGHT

The most dangerous thing in innovation isn't ignorance — it's a working playbook from somewhere else.

When a framework succeeds in one context, we stop questioning it. We carry it into the next room, the next country, the next cohort. And then we're surprised when it breaks.

This week's episode made me think about that constantly.

🎙️ THIS WEEK ON THE SCHOOL OF INNOVATION

"Everything You Think You Know About China Is Wrong"with Luuk Eliens

Western executives walk into China with great slides and great confidence. Six months later, nothing has happened. Not because the market isn't there — but because they applied a playbook that was never designed for that context.

Luuk Eliens has operated inside China's innovation ecosystem for years, and he breaks down exactly where that assumption collapses — and what actually works instead. If you manage programs with an international lens, or if you're building partnerships across cultures, this episode will reframe how you think about contextual adaptation.

🔗 Listen to the episode⏱️ 7 min read / full episode

🛠️ THIS WEEK'S TOOL

Mentor Matching Framework — Free Download

The episode made me think about mentorship in a new way: how often do we match mentors to founders based on availability rather than actual fit? The same context-blindness that kills corporate-China partnerships kills mentor relationships inside accelerators.

The Mentor Matching Framework gives you a structured intake process, scoring matrix, and chemistry call guide so pairings are based on real alignment — not who replied to your email first.

🔗 Download free

📍 FROM THE FIELD

I've been working with a program this month that runs cohorts across three different regions — and uses the same curriculum for all of them. The results are predictably uneven. Not because the curriculum is bad. Because context isn't a detail. It's the whole thing.

If your program operates across different geographies or industries, the question isn't whether to adapt — it's how systematically you've built adaptation into your design. Most programs haven't.

ONE THING YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK

Pick one element of your program — a workshop, a template, a selection criterion — and ask: was this designed for my specific context, or did I inherit it from somewhere else?

If you can't answer that question clearly, that's your starting point.

I'll see you next week,

Yaniv