The CONE Model©
How brilliant solutions become destructive systems — and what to do about it
The CONE Model© is a recurring pattern that explains how and why, no matter who we are, we start with brilliant solutions to our problems and end up with destructive life systems that rob us of our freedoms.
"You might be tempted to believe you are immune to harmful, controlling people and systems — but you would be wrong. It happens to all of us."
Where it shows up
In yourself
Beliefs and inner critics that once protected you — now running your life on autopilot.
In your relationships
Dynamics that shift from connection and care toward control and compromise.
In your organization
The mission-driven institution that gradually becomes what it set out to fix.
HOW TO CONE DEVELOPS
The CONE doesn't appear overnight. It follows a pattern — the same pattern, every time, at every scale.
01
Core Certainties
The bedrock assumptions we never think to question — they inform everything, including how we define our problems.
02
Problems & needs
Never a shortage. Complicated by profiteers who manufacture or amplify needs and offer their solutions.
03
Solutions
Creative, diverse, genuinely responsive. The wide base of the CONE — where possibility lives.
04
System
Structure develops to protect the solution. The narrowing begins. Alternatives become suspect.
04
Dogma
The One Solution. The system is no longer serving the problem — the problem is serving the system.