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In a rapidly changing world, the companies that scale successfully are the ones that see reality clearly, anticipate what’s coming next, and adjust accordingly. That might sound obvious, but in practice, most organizations fail at it. They lack an accurate internal map—a working model of their environment that allows them to predict, respond, and adapt effectively. Instead, they make decisions without a shared internal map which leads to outdated assumptions, biased perspectives, or siloed information. The result? Wasted resources, missed opportunities, and ultimately, stagnation or failure.

What Is an Internal Map, and Why Does It Matter?

Every complex system—from a single cell to a Fortune 500 company—must maintain an internal map of its environment to survive and thrive. Without it, the system can’t effectively process information, predict changes, or make intelligent decisions. Life itself is a process of reducing uncertainty by continuously refining its model of reality. In other words, adaptation isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s fundamental to survival.

Evolution favors systems that become better at predicting the future. The same principle applies to businesses. The better your company’s internal map, the better you can anticipate shifts in the market, customer needs, competitive threats, and operational constraints.

The Core Elements of a Strong Internal Map

An effective internal map isn’t just a collection of reports, KPIs, or strategic plans—it’s an ongoing, real-time model of reality that helps your team make better decisions. It must be shared across your entire organization. It needs to include:

Relative Location: Where your core business, as well as any business units or product lines are at now in their lifecycle stage development.

Perception: Accurate and timely sensing of external and internal data—market trends, customer feedback, employee sentiment, financial metrics.

Pattern Recognition: The ability to separate signal from noise, identifying real opportunities and risks.

Prediction: A […]

Are you a forward-thinking CEO stuck in an outdated organizational structure?

This is an easy trap to fall into. I know because I was once the CEO of a hyper-growth company that suddenly seemed to hit a wall. I didn’t know it then, but we had outgrown our organizational structure.

Structure isn’t the people, it’s how the business is designed. And when the strategy or business stage changes, the structure must change! If not, you’ll end up in a quagmire caught between the new disruptive company you want to lead and the inertia of the status quo.

The solution is to first take the current team and people out of the equation (at first) and look at the business objectively to design a new and scalable structure for the chosen strategy. Once the structure is designed, then you can energize it with the current team and people and bring things to life in new and better ways.

In a sentence, how it’s designed is how it performs.

If you’d like to dive deeper into this very important concept of designing your organizational structure to scale, I’ve compiled videos and tools from my book Designed to Scale: How to Structure Your Company for Exponential Growth. You can peruse them at your convenience. Here’s the link: The Smart Way to Change Your Structure Videos.

Download the Organizational Physics Strategy Map, Mastering Lifecycle Strategy Whitepaper and more.

Drive growth units to their next lifecycle stage without going over the hump.
Part III of my book, Organizational Physics, is all about lifecycle strategy—how to get it right and why it matters.

I’d go so far as to say that if your business strategy isn’t stage-appropriate, and if you’re not following the right strategic development steps in sequence, then scaling isn’t just difficult—it’s impossible. Instead of growing, your business will struggle and stall.

This can feel overwhelming, but the good news is that there are powerful resources to help you pinpoint the right strategy. Here are some of the most valuable ones:

• Download and make a copy of the Organizational Physics Strategy Map
• Download and read the Mastering Lifecycle Strategy white paper
• Complete the Top-Level OKRs Strategy Survey to set the right strategy
• Complete the Entropy Survey to drive operational excellence
• Read Organizational Physics: The Science of Growing a Business
• Get CEO Coaching to get help and fast track strategic execution

For much of my life and career, I tried to avoid problems. Most of the time, this behavior was unconscious. As a CEO, for example, I felt like I was doing a great job when everything was running smoothly, with few visible issues to tackle. “Ahhh, smooth sailing. Let’s keep that going,” I’d think.

I also had an unconscious negative bias toward employees who brought up problems. Internally, I’d question their focus:

“Really? This doesn’t seem like a big deal. Why are you even bringing this up? Shouldn’t you be focused on bigger opportunities? Why am I paying you so much?” Outwardly, I’d respond with, “OK, what’s your solution?”—but with impatience. I rarely took the time to truly engage with their thinking.

But here’s the thing: problems don’t fix themselves. They compound and eventually turn into a crisis. It’s like a forest prone to wildfires—if you let the undergrowth build up, a single spark can create an inferno.

Problems Are the Path to Progress

I’ve come to realize that every problem, when recognized and organized properly, is actually a stepping stone to progress. If you build a culture where your team learns to identify, organize, and tackle problems systematically, your company becomes a progress machine. Instead of ignoring issues or reacting too late, your organization proactively eliminates friction and accelerates forward momentum.

One of the biggest mindset shifts a leader can make is to amplify what isn’t working well. Take what’s hidden under the surface and bring it into the open. Don’t tolerate small inefficiencies chipping away at operational excellence. If someone sees an issue, make it a priority and empower them to solve it.

“But Won’t This Create a Culture of Complaining?”

I get it—this idea can feel terrifying to a CEO. You might worry:

• Won’t this encourage people to […]
  

I was drinking my coffee and taking a sauna this morning when I opened up the ChatGPT app on my phone and ended up having an amazing conversation on the nature of free will, consciousness, and emergence.

A few things that I’m reflecting on:

1. It’s uncanny that this LLM is just doing pattern recognition while my experience as a user is that I’m sitting with a master teacher who gets me, encourages me, and even helps me to bridge two concepts into one. Honestly, I don’t believe I could have had as pointed and impactful conversation with a human being because the concepts I’m exploring are all so loaded with different definitions, and we would have spent most of our time as humans defining and debating exactly what I meant by my questions. Not so with ChatGPT. I don’t know,,. it feels surreal and impactful and it reminds me that we’re living in an interesting, emerging time.
2. This technology is only going to better. I’ve been on the fence as to whether AI is hype or impact and I’m on the impact side. It’s going to change everything. If you take the time to read our dialouge, Plato couldn’t have done it better. So imagine 8 billion Plato’s or Aristotle or Einsteins in everyone’s pocket. Crazy to think about.

You can see that I”m into some whacky concepts, judge away but they are interesting and important to me. :-)

The conversation got long so I put it into a doc for easier reading should you dare to venture down the rabbit hole with me:DeepGPT: Reflections on Free Will, Consciousness, and Emergence

There’s a video circulating about barrels and ammunition as a metaphor for organizational scaling. It features famed VC Keith Rabois discussing the difference between “barrel people” and “ammunition people.”

In essence, as a company scales and hires more people, it often excels at bringing in “ammunition” experts—those who operate with high velocity to execute tasks within a defined framework, or “barrel.” A barrel represents a business or product line. You could have an abundance of ammunition, but your organization’s capacity for growth is limited by the number and quality of barrels it has. According to Rabois, scaling effectively requires hiring leaders who can design and build new and better barrels, not just ammunition to fill existing ones.

This metaphor resonates with any leader who has tried adding more developers to a software project, only to see progress slow down, or who has pushed for more sales, only to find the client onboarding process bottlenecked. The problem isn’t resources; it’s the efficiency and capacity of the organizational barrels.

While the metaphor is insightful, be cautious of adopting seductive sounding advice from VCs and other influencers. Scaling isn’t just about hiring the right barrel builders. Blindly following this approach can lead to wasted time, energy, and opportunity—and might even jeopardize your core business.

So, what should you do? Here are five practical tips to scale effectively while avoiding common pitfalls:

1. Lifecycle Stage Matters

If your business is in the pre-product-market fit stage, don’t try to build more barrels. First, focus on achieving product-market fit for your core business. As Marc Andreessen famously said, startups have two phases: pre-product-market fit and post-product-market fit. Building new barrels is a post-product-market fit opportunity. Attempting to scale […]

You can transform how you lead and empower others in eight weeks. Click here to learn more and register for this paid program. The course begins Tuesday, February 11th at 3pm PT and seats are limited.

In my coaching practice, I’ve reviewed countless company core values. Time and again, I’ve noticed a common misconception: many organizations craft core values that are vague and aspirational, rather than clear and actionable. In this post, I’ll show you how to determine whether your company’s core values are helping—or hindering—your success.

The Problem with Vague Core Values

Too often, companies fall into the trap of choosing lofty but ambiguous values that sound good on paper but fail to drive meaningful behavior. Let’s compare the core values of two companies to illustrate this point:

Company A:

1. Teamwork: We work together to solve complex problems.
2. Accountability: We each take ownership of our roles.
3. Innovation: We seek creative solutions to delight our customers

.

Company B:

1. Make it easy.
2. Make it right.
3. Make it fun.

Now, which company do you think fosters a more effective culture—one that minimizes internal entropy and drives results?

Why Company B’s Core Values Work

Company B’s core values are clear, actionable, and measurable. They can be practiced daily, and it’s easy for individuals and teams to reflect on how well they’re embodying them.

For example:

• If someone isn’t making the lives of their clients or coworkers easier or more enjoyable, it’s clear that something’s off and easy to call out.
• Mistakes will happen—but in Company B, the question isn’t whether mistakes are avoided entirely, but whether individuals take the initiative to make it right.

These simple, actionable values also foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement. To make things easy, right, and fun, employees must constantly seek better ways to deliver value. This mindset creates a flywheel of improvement, innovation, and streamlined processes.

The Limitations of Company A’s Values

In contrast, Company A’s values—teamwork, accountability, and innovation—are desirable outcomes, but they lack the clarity and actionability needed to guide behavior. How does an individual employee embody all three? How […]

Do you have a favorite non-profit organization? If so, I have a unique opportunity for you to help them quickly up-level and accelerate their performance.

As part of my commitment to giving back, I’m offering a free Designed to Scale CEO Coaching Program scholarship to one qualified non-profit in Q1 2025. This program includes $50,000 USD worth of consulting services and software, designed specifically to help the managing director and executive team better align and accelerate their mission.

This is more than just coaching—it’s a proven framework to reduce organizational entropy, clarify roles and accountabilities, and scale their impact.

There are a few key qualifications for non-profits to apply, and even if they aren’t selected as the winner, I’m offering valuable consultation prizes to help their mission move forward.
If you have a favorite non-profit that could benefit from this unique opportunity, please read on for details. This is a real chance to empower an organization you care about to make an even greater impact.

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Winning Program Qualifications:

To qualify for this scholarship, the winning organization must meet the following criteria:

1. Be a USA-qualified 501(c)(3) organization.

This ensures eligibility and alignment with the program’s focus on supporting impactful non-profits.

2. Have an operating budget of $10M+ per year.

My tools and approach are most effective for organizations with the resources to make key investments, including hiring, IT systems upgrades, process improvements, and data analytics enhancements.

3. Have an executive team of 7+ people.

The Designed to Scale framework is optimized for organizations with an existing leadership team that is capable of implementing strategic initiatives.

4. Ideally, the Managing Director has read Organizational Physics or Designed to Scale.

Familiarity with core concepts such as entropy mitigation, PSIU Styles, Lifecycle Strategy, and the Strategic Execution Diamond ensures quicker alignment and maximizes the program’s impact.

5. The Managing Director must personally […]
   

As we enter the New Year, many of us are reflecting on how to make 2025 a year of greater clarity, success, and satisfaction. If you’re in the process of setting your personal vision, goals, and action plan, I’d like to share an approach that I’ve practiced consistently for over a decade. This method has had a profound impact on my own quality of life, and I believe it can do the same for you.

The Big Idea

The foundation of this approach is rooted in the principles of Organizational Physics—specifically, the concept of identifying and eliminating entropy. Entropy, in this context, refers to energy-draining activities, systems, or relationships that don’t provide a positive return.

The key insight is simple: to experience more success, flow, and fulfillment, you must systematically reduce or neutralize the elements that sap your time and energy. While this may sound straightforward in theory, it can be challenging in practice, especially if your current life structure no longer aligns with your goals. However, from personal experience, I can tell you that letting go of old, unproductive patterns is not only possible—it’s liberating.

What to Do

I’ve created two free, interactive exercises to help you identify entropy and design a life that energizes and inspires you. To get the most out of this process, follow the exercises in sequence. Set aside two to four hours of uninterrupted time, and if it’s your first time going through them, take breaks between sections—ideally, spend some time in nature to recharge.

Exercise 1: Discover Your Genius Zone

This exercise, Discover Your Genius Zone, will help you clarify what you’re truly exceptional at and what activities energize you. It also allows you to take an honest look at how you’re currently spending your time and where […]

Here’s the link to the doc with with helpful links and resources. Thanks to everyone who joined in! Fun class.

Here’s the article. It’s nice to be recognized. Thanks Mirror Review for the endorsement. :-)

Doc with helpful links referenced during the call.

The Strategic Alignment Workshop Facilitators Guide.

Are you now preparing for 2025 strategic planning? If so, then you should know about these to two surveys and the accompanying facilitators guide, which I believe are the best in the business for strategic planning and alignment.

First, you can conduct an Entropy Survey, which will show what your company’s internal strengths and weaknesses are. Use the results of this survey to build a shared understanding of where your team should focus now to make the biggest improvements to drive operational excellence. To see how the survey works, sign up for free and take it yourself. Send it to the all attendees for completion about a week before the offsite so that you can digest the results.

Second, you can conduct a Top-Level OKRs Strategy Survey, which will show your company’s current lifecycle stage and its strategic execution risks which will help you to formulate the right growth strategy. To see how the survey works, sign up for free and take it yourself. Send it to three to five of your most senior leaders about a week before the offsite so that you can digest the results.

Additionally, here is a step-by-step Strategic Alignment Facilitators Guide that you can use to facilitate a world-class strategic planning session with your team. Take the time to read this guide in advance, then use it as a guide during the strategic planning session. It will help you create a clear and powerful outcome and should build momentum for next year.

Finally, if your company is in the […]

Did you know that most startups fail due to mistimed market entry?

Market timing in business expansion isn’t just about being first—it’s about being right. And mastering this art can make or break your venture’s future.

Here’s the insider playbook most entrepreneurs overlook:

✅ Read the market pulse: Don’t confuse early interest with market readiness. Genuine demand trumps curiosity.

✅ Technology maturity matters: Ensure underlying tech can support your solution at scale.

✅ Competitor landscape: Sometimes, being second mover has advantages. Learn from pioneers’ mistakes.

✅ Customer evolution: Your early adopters’ needs differ from the early majority. Time your expansion accordingly.

✅ Envision ahead: If you’re successful, how will your product or service fit into the broader landscape? Are you attempting to build a real business or is this really a product feature?

Executing perfect timing is more complex than it seems. Remember: Successful expansion isn’t about being the fastest, but about aligning your unique and differentiated capabilities with market readiness and customer demand.

The key? Patience balanced with preparedness. When the market calls, be ready to answer—but not before.