About this course
The employee survival guide for the age of AI. Change is announced twice: first in actions, months early, and then in words, in a memo that only confirms what was decided. This course teaches you to read the first announcement. It runs in four sections and one module: the five places a plan shows up before your inbox, what kind of change you are in and who it exposes, what is actually happening to jobs in October 2026 and how to move your hours toward the work that stays yours, and the people who see around the corner first. Module E asks why the corner is not the same height for everyone, and who hears last. It closes with one order for reading the corner, and a decision made before the memo.
Along the way you learn the models Duane uses: the Five Tells (The Chair, The Money, The Outsiders, The Words, The Quiet), Cut or Build, the check "Is the work gone, or the money?", the Last Bad Year, the Routine Test (Steps, Calls, People, Context), Who Tells You (The Keeper, The Builder, The Leaver, The Neighbor), and Build, Watch or Look. Three full cases let you make the call before you hear how Duane would read it.
Who it is for
- Employees at any level who want to see a change coming before it is announced.
- Managers, who sit under the same corner as everyone else.
- Anyone whose work is being talked about in the same breath as AI.
Learning objectives and outcomes
By the end of the course you will be able to:
- Read the plan before the memo. Log the Five Tells with dates and sources, and tell noise from a pattern from a plan.
- Name the kind of change. Score the five markers of Cut or Build, and ask whether the work is gone or only the money.
- Use the last bad year as a forecast. Find out how the company treated people the last time the numbers fell.
- Test your own job. Take your role apart with the Routine Test, and move your hours out of Steps and toward the work a stranger could not do from your notes.
- Know who tells you. Find the Keeper, the Builder, the Leaver and the Neighbor, and read the Quiet and the Official Line as news about the job.
- Decide before the memo. Choose Build, Watch or Look, with a date and a first step.
- See who hears last. Read the same moments across ENRICH, and ask whose corner is higher.
What is included
The Participant Booklet draws every model, adds new scenarios and private self-checks, includes the October 2026 figures, and ends with a quick reference. The Participant Workbook is where you do the practice, one step per section. The videos tell you when to pause and turn to a page. Nothing you write is collected.
Chapters
19 chapters, 2 h 15 min of video.
- 00Welcome4:36
Change is announced twice.
- 01The Last Surprise2:55
Two lines, for your eyes only.
- 02The Memo Comes Last7:14
The plan was in five places before your inbox.
- 03Count the Tells7:17
One is noise. Two is a pattern. Three is a plan.
- 04Case: Nothing's Decided11:34
The best team in the company, and the plan.
- 05What Kind of Change Is This?7:41
Cut or Build, and who each one exposes.
- 06Is the Work Gone, or the Money?3:26
The check for any announcement that says AI.
- 07The Last Bad Year5:58
The most honest forecast you will get.
- 08Case: The Roster11:24
Build for some, Cut for others, under one roof.
- 09Your Job, Not You4:15
What is actually happening, October 2026.
- 10The Routine Test5:53
Could a stranger do this from your notes?
- 11Move Your Hours5:55
Let the tool have the Steps.
- 12Case: The Fast One10:37
The dashboard counted closes. What did it miss?
- 13Who Tells You6:52
Four people see around the corner first.
- 14The Quiet, and The Official Line4:00
When your boss goes quiet, read it as news about the job.
- 15Build, Watch or Look7:02
Three roads after the read, and who told you first.
- 16Module E: The Corner Is Not the Same Height11:45
Same eyes, a different wall.
- 17Module E: Who Hears Last9:01
Six moments, and a private audit.
- 18Close7:35
Read the corner in this order, and decide before the memo.