On9 Systems quietly turned 26 this year.

There was no launch.

No campaign.

Just a pause.

On9 began in 1999, in a very different landscape. Since then, the work has taken many forms — technology, product, facilitation, coaching, community. Titles changed. Contexts shifted. The work kept asking for attention.

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On9 as a Living Practice

This year, I began seeing On9 less as a company and more as a living practice.

Some seasons were about growth.

Others about contraction.

Some about survival.

Many about listening.

Like a tree, much of the real work happened underground — in relationships, missteps, patience, and time.

What stands out is not progress, but continuity.

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A Memory That Shaped the Work

In 2013, I wrote a short piece titled How I Choose to Work. It didn’t feel like a turning point then — more like a clarification after years of fatigue and misalignment.

What I was really naming was a boundary.

A choice to stop doing work that required me to shrink myself.

A choice to work at a human pace.

A choice to prioritise honesty, relationships, and learning over speed or appearance.

Looking back now, that piece feels like the quiet beginning of the On9 practice as it exists today.

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What the Work Taught Me

Over time, clients and collaborators reflected back lessons no framework could teach:

• transformation cannot be rushed
  
• learning cannot be outsourced
  
• presence matters more than performance
  

The work that endured was rarely the most impressive. It was the work where people felt seen, where tension could be named, and where learning unfolded at a human pace.

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The Manifesto

The On9 Systems Manifesto (2025–2035) is not a declaration of ambition.

It is a commitment to continuity:

to do the right work, at the right pace, with the right people.

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Standing at the Edge of 2026

As 2025 closes, I’m less interested in acceleration and more interested in alignment — between how I work, how I live, and how I show up.

Learning continues, but it keeps pointing to the same place:

How we work is inseparable from who we are becoming.

That feels like enough to stand on as we step into 2026.