Jon W. Hansen, FCIPS · Procurement Insights | Hansen Models™ · October 2026
Picture 1
Picture 2
Each string on that guitar is a strand. Strum one string and you can only do so much. It is only when the strings are played together, in their proper sequence, that music happens.
Now, if one string is out of tune, even though all the others are perfectly tuned, what happens to the whole song? It sounds wrong. Not one note. The whole song.
An organization works the same way. Service, buyers, finance, suppliers, couriers, customs: each one is a string, and each one moves in its own wave. The outcome is decided where they come together. One string out of tune, a misaligned incentive, a wrong number, a supplier condition nobody noticed, and every other function can be working exactly as designed while the result still fails.
That is why so many AI initiatives disappoint. Most of them tune one string beautifully and never ask whether the others are in tune, or whether they are being played together at all. A brilliant agent on one strand is still one string.
In 1998, I could follow three or four strands at once, and over about a year and a half, four to six. Today, with ARA™ RAM 2025™ running on SLAP OS™, I can play ten to twelve strands at the same time, in their proper sequence. What excites me most is that I can sense there are many more beyond the twelve. There is a whole orchestra still to be discovered.
That is Strand Commonality™: the invisible strands that everyone misses.
So, if you can explain why these two pictures are the same, you already understand what AI needs before it can work for you. Not a better instrument. Strings that are in tune, and played together.
Truth Is Believing. Accuracy Is Knowing. Outcome Is Proof.™
How Do These Two Pictures Reveal the Same Problem With AI?
Posted on October 18, 2026
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Jon W. Hansen, FCIPS · Procurement Insights | Hansen Models™ · October 2026
Picture 1
Picture 2
Each string on that guitar is a strand. Strum one string and you can only do so much. It is only when the strings are played together, in their proper sequence, that music happens.
Now, if one string is out of tune, even though all the others are perfectly tuned, what happens to the whole song? It sounds wrong. Not one note. The whole song.
An organization works the same way. Service, buyers, finance, suppliers, couriers, customs: each one is a string, and each one moves in its own wave. The outcome is decided where they come together. One string out of tune, a misaligned incentive, a wrong number, a supplier condition nobody noticed, and every other function can be working exactly as designed while the result still fails.
That is why so many AI initiatives disappoint. Most of them tune one string beautifully and never ask whether the others are in tune, or whether they are being played together at all. A brilliant agent on one strand is still one string.
In 1998, I could follow three or four strands at once, and over about a year and a half, four to six. Today, with ARA™ RAM 2025™ running on SLAP OS™, I can play ten to twelve strands at the same time, in their proper sequence. What excites me most is that I can sense there are many more beyond the twelve. There is a whole orchestra still to be discovered.
That is Strand Commonality™: the invisible strands that everyone misses.
So, if you can explain why these two pictures are the same, you already understand what AI needs before it can work for you. Not a better instrument. Strings that are in tune, and played together.
Truth Is Believing. Accuracy Is Knowing. Outcome Is Proof.™
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Strand Commonality™: A Real-World Example
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In the next post, I will introduce you to the Orchestra: our new lab, following the strands from 2020 to 2027.
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