Taraxa Labs was created to provide a safe space for leadership from private enterprise, public sector, and non-profit organizations to let their guard down, get out of their comfort zones, and to challenge the status quo. Taraxa Labs recognizes that the digital transformation game is filled with imprecision, moving targets, competing interests, security threats, and the inevitable, sometimes inexplicable, setbacks and failures that must be mitigated with a strong vision and informed judgments affecting your organization, technology, and people. Our mission is to offer leadership a sandbox for reimagination and reinvention while providing the practical tools and guidebooks to help navigate your transformation journey.
Adan K. Pope, Co-Founder
A venerated technologist and serial CTO, Adan trusts that the answers to your most difficult challenges exist somewhere in your marketplace and he makes it his mission to help you chart your path to success. If you’re a CEO, you turn to Adan when technology hype starts to look more like a panacea than an enabler. If you’re his peer, he will run toward the fire with you as you try to reinvent your business. If you’re a team leader, he will show you how to make informed judgments so you can confidently drive measurable business performance.
Peter J. Buonfiglio, Co-Founder
Peter is the guy you go to when you begin to realize that ”you don’t know what you don’t know.” He is the guy you want with you when you are staring into the open pit of uncertainty that you will surely face at times of disruption and challenge. He is the thick-skinned, “let’s figure this out,” pragmatic New Yorker whose thoughtfully researched counsel steadfastly rings true. Peter suffers no fools and goes where the facts take him and expects the same of those around him.
Knowledge Sharing
Adan and Peter are the authors of two thought-provoking leadership books:
An award-winning guide to managing innovation and transformation, Respect the Weeds has been described as a “must read” and “a brilliant perspective on a complex subject.” The authors weave the best practices across technology evolution, organizational theory, and self-actualization to navigate the rough waters between a strategic vision and desired outcomes.
Based on reader feedback about the disruptive nature of Mergers & Acquisitions, Adan and Peter examined the shortcomings of existing organizational theory and culture management. Out of that work, and guided by decades of driving change, came Intentional Tension, a hot-off-the-press playbook for visualizing and tuning organizational tensions within and between high-performing teams.
Adan frequently delivers talks and keynotes at technology leadership events. To introduce the intentional tension concepts to the world, Adan spoke recently to an audience of technologists and policy leaders at TEDxIllinoisTech, on the topic of “Optimizing Tensions from Artificial Intelligence.”
Adan and Peter also contribute to the conversation in the print/online media space. Given the numerous inquiries to Taraxa Labs about adopting artificial intelligence, the authors penned a primer, “Getting Started With Artificial Intelligence,” for AI Business and a human resources perspective, “All That AI Tension? It Might Be Pointing You in the Right Direction,” in Allwork.Space.
Innovation
Hope is not a strategy. Fundamental change cannot be mandated; instead, it must be inspired, curated, and celebrated. Adan and Peter have spent a lifetime creating and codifying innovative concepts that seek to drive disruptive thinking for those stuck in the void of incrementalism.
Adan holds 27 patents in communications and computing architecture and workflows.
METHODOLOGIES
In Respect the Weeds, the authors introduce a new leadership style, the “Undaunted Leader,” who embraces the principles required to drive transformation no matter the risks and uncertainties.
One of the inspirations for Intentional Tension was a unique visualization methodology created in the Taraxa Labs leadership sandbox called Tension MappingTM. Tension Mapping helps leaders resolve underlying issues of the business and drive growth by creating intentional tensions and doing away with ones that no longer serve the business.
Sample: Tension Mapping
Image from Intentional Tension, page 75
[Copyright Taraxa Labs LLC 2025. Tension Mapping is a trademark of Taraxa Labs LLC.]