Tutorials
Organizational Physics provides real-world answers to some of the most vexing challenges faced by organizational leaders:
- Success. How do you have greater success and satisfaction?
- Management. How to build and manage powerhouse teams?
- Strategy. How to always choose the right strategy?
- Execution. How to execute fast?
Jump to:
Podcast Intro
Part I: Listen to Lex being interviewed by a former client, Chris Powers on the Fort Podcast. It’s a good intro to the first-principles behind Organizational Physics.
Listen on: Apple | Spotify | YouTube
Part II: Listen in as former client Chris Powers, host of the Fort with Chris Powers, interviews his business partner Jason Baxter as they do a real-time 2021 Year in Review at Fort Capital. I didn’t know that Chris and Jason were going to discuss the impact Organizational Physics had made on their already successful business. It was fun and humbling for me to hear them speak about their experience and new perspectives in their own words. I hope you’ll enjoy it too.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple | Youtube
Part III: This is the Fort Podcast Year End Review for 2022. It is important to notice that the design, mindset, and language of Organizational Physics are still present, but the founders are now focused on scaling their business, not operating Organizational Physics! By design, Organizational Physics principles have faded into the background, and the founders and their company are having a ton of fun growing their business in the right way. Our collaboration in 2020 was short-lived, but its benefits are long-lasting.
Listen on:Spotify | Apple | Youtube
Organizational Physics 101 Tutorials
Watch the 5-part video series Organizational Physics 101 below to learn the principles that lead to breakthrough levels of performance. Then download one of our “old school” or “new school” infographic cheat sheets to aid your retention. 🙂
Introduction to Organizational Physics
How to Have Greater Success & Satisfaction
Learn more about how to have greater success and happiness:
- The Universal Success Formula
- Success Goes to the Best Adapted
- Your Genius Zone
- View the Universal Success Formula PPT Deck
How to Build & Manage Powerhouse Teams
Learn more about the Four Styles of Management:
- The Four Styles of Management
- Who Moved My Cheese and the Four Forces
- The PSIU Talent Management Suite
- View the Four Styles of Management PPT Deck
How to Choose the Right Strategy
Learn more about Lifecycle Strategy:
- Lifecycle Strategy: Product, Market, Execution Fit
- Lifecycle Strategy: How to Tell If You’re Doing It Right
- The Pre-Startup Checklist
- View the Lifecycle Strategy PPT Deck
How to Execute Fast
Learn more about how to execute fast:
- The Physics of Fast Execution
- Warning: Vision & Values Can Kill Your Company
- The 5 Classic Mistakes in Organizational Structure: Or, How to Design Your Organization the Right Way
- Mastering Team-Based Decision Making
- The Motivation Myth: Or, How to Get Your Employees to Work Harder, Faster, Smarter
- View the Physics of Fast Execution PPT Deck
Designed to Scale Tutorials
Watch these Designed to Scale videos to provide color and context to some of the concepts covered in Lex’s book Designed to Scale – How to Structure Your Business for exponential growth.
Introduction to Designed to Scale
What is Structure?
Structure is how your business is organized. If you want to get your business to do something new, then at key points in its development, you’ll need to look at and change its structure.
The 3 Building Blocks of Structure
The three design elements of organizational structure are: Functions, Location, and Authority. Use these three building blocks to avoid some common pitfalls and design the right new structure for your business stage and strategy.
The 6 Rules of Structure
There are 6 Rules of Structure to follow when designing a scalable business structure. They are:
1. If the strategy or lifecycle stage changes, change the structure.
2. Don’t allow short-range functions to control long-range ones.
3. Don’t allow efficiency functions to control effectiveness ones.
4. Don’t allow centralized control to overpower decentralized autonomy.
5. Put people into roles where they can focus and thrive.
6. Process brings structure alive.
Design Controls Behavior
Design controls behavior. If you want new business behaviors, change the the organizational structure The 6 Rules of Structure provide visibility into key underlying polarities at work within every business. A key idea is to not treat polarities as problems to be solved. Polarities (e.g., short-range vs. long-range, efficiency vs. effectiveness, control vs. autonomy) must be harnessed to create the right amount of tension in the business for sustained strategic execution.
The Right Structure for the Business Stage
What is the right organizational structure for the current and emerging lifecycle stage of your core business and any business units? Using the Organizational Physics Strategy Map as a guide, this video shows that:
- A Pilot It stage initiative requires very limited structure.
- A Nail It stage initiative benefits from a functional structure.
- A Scale It stage initiative requires an evolving structure (based on the functions defined in the Nail It stage).
- A Milk It stage structure requires making a break or escape from the legacy structure.
Introduction to the 4-quadrant Structure Map
The Structure Map is a powerful thinking tool to identify any current structural breakdowns occurring in your business, to design the right new scalable growth structure, and to have easier and more pointed structural conversations with your team.
Download the Structure Map template.
How to Stack Your Structure with the Best Talent
No structure is perfect. No new hire is perfect. There are always trade offs. Be more conscious of those trade-offs upfront so that you can make the best decisions possible and stack your new structure with the right talent.
Learn more:
Test Drive PSIU Assessments
Buy How to Think About Hiring at:
Buy Designed to Scale
Start Your New Structure By Thinking Horizontally
When designing a structure, think horizontally instead of vertically. In this video, you will see how to lay out an ideal Customer journey, a Product journey, and an Employee journey as inputs into your new structure.
Buy the Book Designed to Scale.
The 5 Steps to Designing a New Structure
There are 5 steps to follow when designing and implementing a new organizational structure:
Step 1. Map Key Process Cycles
Step 2. Map Functions
Step 3. Clarify & Adopt Structure
Step 4. Place People
Step 5. Plan & Execute Roll Out
Links to Additional Resources Referenced in these Videos
Buy the book Organizational Physics
Buy the book Designed to Scale
Take the Top-Level OKRs Strategy Survey
Take the Entropy Survey
Take PSIU Assessments