Core Elements of the Scarcity Protocol:
1. Find a genuine need or purpose:
- Change must be driven by a real, meaningful reason that motivates the organization.
- Examples include the U.S. moon landing mission driven by national pride and competition during the Cold War.
- Without a compelling purpose (e.g., space projects with unlimited budgets), motivation and creativity weaken.

2. Bring experts together:
- Form small groups of internal experts who understand the organization's context.
- Avoid relying extensively on external consultants; use them only sparingly and briefly.
- Small expert groups create a "pull system," encouraging others to address problems themselves while awaiting expert support.

3. Create and grow open resources:
- Develop shared repositories or knowledge bases that people can access for self-help.
- Example: Xerox technicians used a radio network to share expertise for machine repairs, creating a learning organization.
- These resources enable broader staff to solve problems independently and amplify the effect of the expert group.

4. Keep the expert group small and scarce:
- Scarcity forces others to act proactively rather than waiting for experts.
- Successful organizations (e.g., a Dutch nursing organization with thousands of nurses managed by only 20 expert coaches) employ this model.

Signs of the Scarcity Protocol Working:
- Change continues despite experts being busy.
- The shared resource repository expands organically.
- Other organizational units seek to adopt the change.
- Early adopters (pioneers) are proud and recognized.
- Unauthorized internal consultants appear helping others.
- Internal benchmarks show measurable change (important to set baseline metrics).

Practical Insights & Actionable Items:
- Identify and validate a genuine organizational need or purpose by engaging frontline workers and avoiding management information bubbles—go "undercover boss" to listen directly.
- Assemble a small, primarily internal expert team with minimal external consultancy support.
- Develop open knowledge sharing resources to empower employees to self-solve problems.
- Maintain scarcity in experts to promote initiative and distributed problem-solving.
- Set benchmarks before starting initiatives to measure progress.
- Observe and encourage organic growth signs of change adoption.
- Recognize the current economic crisis as an opportunity to apply this scarcity protocol effectively.