The Agentic Operating Model

Marc Walker, Affan Burki, Wout Helsmoortel
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The Agentic Operating Model is a podcast about how organizations get work done, and what changes when AI agents start doing part of it. Marc Walker, Affan Burki and Wout Helsmoortel bring three lenses (architecture, operations and experience) to the questions that decide whether AI sticks: decision rights, governance, accountability, and how work is divided between people and agents. Each episode starts with problems you'll recognize, then gets practical. No model launches, no hype. For transformation leads, COOs, architects and anyone asked to implement AI without a clear structure for it. Your hosts Marc Walker Marc is an enterprise architect, ontologist and operating model specialist. He worked on his first operating model in 1998, back when it was still called a management system, and has since designed operating models and architectures for organizations such as AstraZeneca, Credit Suisse and Lloyds Bank, and for public bodies including NATO, NEOM and the UK Department for Work and Pensions. In recent years his focus has shifted to emerging technology: smart cities, autonomous vehicles and now the integration of generative AI and semantic knowledge systems into operating model design. He has also researched threat modeling and cybersecurity ontologies at Newcastle University, and co-created Orbit Method with Wout. Affan Burki Affan is a former British Army officer, commissioned at Sandhurst in 2005. He served in operational and doctrinal roles including the Army's Land Stabilisation and Counterinsurgency Centre and the Collective Training Group, and helped write Allied and multinational doctrine on capacity building in Afghanistan, Iraq and NATO nations. After leaving active service, he was part of the founding team behind NATO's digital transformation, and he continues to advise NATO and its partners on learning and development. His lens is operations: the execution side, where an operating model is lived rather than drawn. Wout Helsmoortel Wout is the founder of Studio Shaped, which designs how people and AI agents work together in regulated and high-stakes environments. He began his career designing safety-critical interfaces for Siemens and Eurocontrol, then worked as a design strategist and UX lead for clients such as Walmart, Cigna, Belfius and ENGIE. Today he works with organizations including Fluxys and NATO. Together with Marc, he created Orbit Method, a framework for AI transformation built on the experience, architecture and operations lenses. He is a certified ISO/IEC 27001 Lead Implementer.

Episodes

  1. 1d ago

    Three Lenses, One Transformation

    Why do so many transformations fail, even when the technology works? Most programs look at change through one lens: the technology, the operations or the people. In this episode, Marc Walker, Affan Burki and Wout Helsmoortel argue that you need all three at once, and each of us takes one: experience (how people live the change), architecture (the systems that make it possible) and operations (how the work actually gets done). The trouble usually starts at the joints between them. We cover what successful transformations get right, the Andon cord that let any factory worker stop the production line, and why communication and trust matter even more when the transformation team is as uncertain as everyone else. On experience, we look at what changes when agents stop being tools and start acting for you, and how confidence thresholds decide when an agent goes ahead or asks first. On architecture, context and trust become the design problem. On operations, the questions are feasibility and roles: most organizations can't say who does what, because they don't describe roles in a shared language. We close with the Orbit Method current state canvas, which brings all three lenses together on one page. Chapters 00:00 Welcome Back 00:22 Why Transformations Break at the Joints 02:17 What Successful Transformations Get Right 04:38 Can You Put Your Operating Model on Paper? 06:42 The Andon Cord: Who Gets to Stop the Line 09:00 Communication and Trust in Agentic Change 10:50 The Experience Lens: From SaaS to Agents 13:38 Context at the Right Time 15:28 Confidence Scores as Guardrails 17:00 Designing the Human-Agent Interface 19:17 The Architecture Lens: Horizons and the Tech Stack 24:11 The Business Payoff 26:33 The Operations Lens: Is It Feasible? 29:56 The Current State Canvas: Nine Blocks, Three Lenses 33:06 Start with Key Processes 35:07 Role Mapping and a Shared Language 37:51 Wrap-Up and What's Next Next episode: who does what. We walk through the target operating model canvas and how to divide work between people and AI agents, moving from the map phase to the design phase. Try Orbit Method tools at https://orbitmethod.com and tell us what works and what doesn't. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe so you don't miss the next one.

  2. Sep 11

    An Operating Model Is Not an Org Chart

    What is an operating model, and why does it matter now that AI agents can do real work? In our first episode, Marc Walker, Affan Burki and Wout Helsmoortel start with the basics. Most people picture an org chart or a binder of policies, but an operating model is how people, process and technology come together to deliver value, and it's where the gap between strategy and performance opens up. We trace the line from strategy to business model to operating model, borrow "complicated versus complex" from General Stanley McChrystal's Team of Teams, and use a restaurant to make it concrete: the menu is the business model, the kitchen and floor are the operating model, and the plate is performance. Then we ask what happens when an agent joins the kitchen, and why the tacit knowledge your people carry in their heads is exactly what an agent needs written down. Chapters 00:00 Cold Open: Technology Isn't the Bottleneck 00:26 Meet the Hosts 04:22 Not an Org Chart: Where Operating Models Came From 06:54 People, Process, Technology 08:53 The Gap Between Strategy and Performance 12:06 Strategy to Business Model to Operating Model 14:33 Complicated, Complex, Robust, Resilient 15:46 The Restaurant Analogy 20:45 Restaurant Procurement: Could an Agent Handle It? 24:07 Tacit Knowledge and the Documentation Gap 27:37 Introducing Orbit Method 30:09 Wrap-Up and What's Next Next episode: the three lenses of transformation (experience, architecture and operations), with each of us taking one lens. Try Orbit Method tools at https://orbitmethod.com and tell us what works and what doesn't. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe so you don't miss the next one.

  • 2 Episodes

About

The Agentic Operating Model is a podcast about how organizations get work done, and what changes when AI agents start doing part of it. Marc Walker, Affan Burki and Wout Helsmoortel bring three lenses (architecture, operations and experience) to the questions that decide whether AI sticks: decision rights, governance, accountability, and how work is divided between people and agents. Each episode starts with problems you'll recognize, then gets practical. No model launches, no hype. For transformation leads, COOs, architects and anyone asked to implement AI without a clear structure for it. Your hosts Marc Walker Marc is an enterprise architect, ontologist and operating model specialist. He worked on his first operating model in 1998, back when it was still called a management system, and has since designed operating models and architectures for organizations such as AstraZeneca, Credit Suisse and Lloyds Bank, and for public bodies including NATO, NEOM and the UK Department for Work and Pensions. In recent years his focus has shifted to emerging technology: smart cities, autonomous vehicles and now the integration of generative AI and semantic knowledge systems into operating model design. He has also researched threat modeling and cybersecurity ontologies at Newcastle University, and co-created Orbit Method with Wout. Affan Burki Affan is a former British Army officer, commissioned at Sandhurst in 2005. He served in operational and doctrinal roles including the Army's Land Stabilisation and Counterinsurgency Centre and the Collective Training Group, and helped write Allied and multinational doctrine on capacity building in Afghanistan, Iraq and NATO nations. After leaving active service, he was part of the founding team behind NATO's digital transformation, and he continues to advise NATO and its partners on learning and development. His lens is operations: the execution side, where an operating model is lived rather than drawn. Wout Helsmoortel Wout is the founder of Studio Shaped, which designs how people and AI agents work together in regulated and high-stakes environments. He began his career designing safety-critical interfaces for Siemens and Eurocontrol, then worked as a design strategist and UX lead for clients such as Walmart, Cigna, Belfius and ENGIE. Today he works with organizations including Fluxys and NATO. Together with Marc, he created Orbit Method, a framework for AI transformation built on the experience, architecture and operations lenses. He is a certified ISO/IEC 27001 Lead Implementer.

Information

  • Creator
    Marc Walker, Affan Burki, Wout Helsmoortel
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    2
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Marc Walker, Affan Burki, Wout Helsmoortel
  • Show Website
    The Agentic Operating Model