The Conversation That Sparked It
I was on a call the other day with an executive who’s running a fast-growing company—just crossed 80 employees. We weren’t talking strategy. We weren’t talking technology. We were talking about people.
He said something that stuck with me:
| “It feels like the more we grow, the less I know who’s doing what.”
That landed.
Because I’ve heard some version of that same sentence from almost every founder or leader I work with.
We kept talking.
He walked me through how things used to work—tight team, fast decisions, everybody rowing in the same direction. Now?
They’re profitable, but the pressure’s building. People are bumping into each other. Decisions are slow. Managers are stuck trying to lead without the tools or clarity to do it well.
At one point, he said, “I feel like I’m the system.”
I paused. Then I asked:
| “What if your people were the system?”
The System Behind the Chaos
He looked at me for a second like I had just asked a riddle.
But the more we talked, the more it made sense.
He’d been building systems for operations, for clients, for finance. But the people? They were being managed around the systems. Slotted in. Directed. Reacted to.
And it worked—for a while.
Until the gaps started showing.
Until people became the bottleneck.
Until decisions started stalling.
Until managers got stuck firefighting.
Until he felt alone at the center of it all.
Here’s what I’ve seen:
In companies between 50 and 150 employees, the way people work becomes the business. Execution, speed, culture—it’s not in the org chart. It’s in how people move.
So when growth adds complexity, people either become the amplifier or the brake.
Maybe the Problem Isn’t People
Most companies don’t even realize they’re designing systems around everything but their people.
They think the problem is tech. Or structure. Or strategy.
But what’s missing is something simpler: a system that helps people work better.
The Question That Won’t Go Away
That’s the question I’ve been sitting with:
| What if people weren’t just part of the system?
| What if they were the system?
Not just in theory. In how decisions get made.
In how work gets done.
In how strategy becomes action.
In how managers lead.
In how performance gets measured in real time—not just financially, but operationally, behaviorally, and humanly.
This is the kind of conversation we need to be having.
Not “how do we build better systems,” but:
How do we build systems that start with people?
Because the truth is, you don’t need another operating model layered on top of the chaos.
You need clarity. Alignment. Execution.
You need a way for your people to operate better—without you holding it all together.
That’s where we’re headed.
And if that question hits a little too close to home…good.
Let’s talk.
