Philosophy of Scaling Organizations

Foundational Thoughts

1. An organization has a desired output.
2. That output is driven by activities.
3. Those activities occur one-off or within rhythm: daily, weekly, monthly, etc.
4. The amount of activities that can happen within a given time horizon are a function of the capacity of people (in terms of Time) and systems (in terms of capabilities).

Principles

1. Manage at the highest possible resolution (surf waves, not water molecules).
2. Align all activities to strategies or values, ideally both.
3. Start all tasks with alignment KPIs in mind, whether you do yourself or delegate.
4. Manage the results, not the process.

The Beginning of an Organization

An organization begins with a goal, an intent.

To achieve that goal, the organization defines a first task, a definition of done, an estimate, and a due date. This is strategic exploratory work, a bet on what will create value for the organization.

If completed successfully, the process is repeated.

Over time, the organization discovers tasks that create value when repeated in pursuit of the goal. These tasks become the OS of the organization. As an organization adds tasks to the OS, it is betting on repeated tasks in lieu of other strategic exploratory work that might be done within the same time inventory.

At some point, available hours are exhausted, either by the OS, or by the amount of strategic exploratory work needed to reach the goal, and the organization must decide to do one of the following:

1. Prioritize and prune tasks to recapture time budget.
2. Automate tasks to recapture time budget.
3. Hire to expand time budget.

This process is repeated until the business reaches the goal.

Any organization with more than one human chose #3 at least one time.

When this occurs, a 4th option becomes available:

4. Shift tasks to other team members to maximize available time budget.

In an organization where any team member is overwhelmed, these are the options available to them.