The WISER Method
You’re using AI. Not operating with it.
The WISER Method is an open method for changing how work gets done with AI, without shutting down the systems the work runs on.
Built in the field
Built on organizational AGI, the idea at the center of the bestselling Age of Invisible Machines (Wiley). Anchored by AI First Principles, an open framework of twelve constraints on how AI systems behave inside real organizations. The core method is open source.
The Foundation
Age of Invisible Machines
Age of Invisible Machines, by Robb Wilson and Josh Tyson (Wiley), is a Wall Street Journal bestseller and the foundational argument for why agentic AI changes how organizations work. It sets out organizational AGI: AI as a force multiplier for the teams in an organization rather than a replacement for them. The WISER Method is built on that idea, and the book continues as the Invisible Machines podcast.
The complete method, in one book
WISER Method Master Playbook
The WISER Method Master Playbook is the method worked in full: the five Canons, 26 Plays you can pick up cold, 35 templates, and a composite case study that runs the method from discovery to deployment.
How it works
Bolting AI onto a broken process scales the mess. WISER starts with the work as people actually do it, then changes it with evidence, one bounded change at a time.
- Action over theory. Trust what can be proven, not what can be planned.
- Evolution over disruption. Rebuild the system while it runs.
- People over proxies. The experts are the people doing the work, not the people documenting it.
The method runs through five Canons in order, and going back to an earlier one when the evidence calls for it is part of the method:
- Witness. Observation reveals what planning conceals.
- Interrogate. Observation finds pain. Experiments find causes.
- Solve. Experiments find causes. Solutions earn trust.
- Expand. Earned trust enables systematic change toward autonomy.
- Refine. Autonomy is not designed, it is grown.
Two ways in
Read the method. It fits on one page: the Canons, the Plays that adapt them, the Playbook that remembers what the team learned, and the Positions that keep a person accountable for every decision. Read the method
Start with a play. Pick the process everyone complains about and watch it run. Then map where it breaks, how often, and what each break costs. That is Friction Mapping, and its template is free. Get the templates
Questions
What is the WISER Method?
A method for changing how a team works with AI while the work keeps running. Five Canons carry the work from observation to scale. Plays adapt them to a domain, a Playbook holds what the team has learned, and Positions keep a named person accountable for each decision. It is built on organizational AGI and AI First Principles.
Is it free?
Yes. The method and its printable templates are published under CC BY-SA 4.0: use them, adapt them, and share what you change, with attribution. The hosted Notion and Google templates are free for personal use. The book contains the 26 Plays in full and sits outside the open license.
Who stewards it?
EffectiveSC, a 501(c)(3) public charity, holds the method’s intellectual property and trademark and publishes it. No vendor stands behind it. More about the stewardship