Writing on the web since 2003

Build #98 – AI and the workslop epidemic Hey Reader, I’ve been thinking about a particular kind of waste in business a lot recently. Not the obvious kind – where someone clearly hasn’t done the work or has done it badly. That’s easy to spot and easy to fix. No, I’m talking about something far more insidious: work that *looks* perfectly fine but is actually wholly worthless. It’s work that appears plausible, sounds professional and uses all the right language. But when you really examine it,…

I bring you three articles that circle around a single question: how do you get things done through other people? Whether it’s handing off tasks to your team, thinking about the relational structures that underpin your organisation or building the kind of…

I’ve been thinking a bit about a pattern I keep seeing in the founder-led scale-ups I’ve worked with over the years. It goes like this. Founders hire a “professional manager” to bring structure as their companies grow past the a number of people – usually 20 to 50. That manager arrives with all the creds. They talk about governance frameworks and reporting cadences and accountability matrices (I am aware that I talk…

This week’s Build seems to have inadvertently landed on a theme around the uncomfortable gap between corporate rhetoric and reality. These three articles share a common thread about the limitations of aspiration when confronted with the messy complexity of real organisational life. They challenge us to move beyond comforting abstractions that founders tend to rely upon on towards harder, more honest…

I’ve just completed two organisational design projects with founders looking at creating the first leadership teams for their businesses. That means I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about role clarity. Which got me to noticing the complete absence of it in so many scaling businesses when I first come across them. Let me give you an example. Last week I had a half hour intro call with a founder who told me her team was “totally…

This week’s selection from my inbox explores three different perspectives on how systems resist founders’ best intentions. I bring you insights about birds that teach us about adaptive leadership, the art of saying no without burning bridges and why brilliant ideas fail when they clash with existing systems. A strand that connects all three of this week’s recommended articles is the fact that founder success isn’t…

I’ve been thinking a lot about control lately. Not in some grand, philosophical way but more in the “why did I just spend 20 minutes researching the optimal way to load a dishwasher” kind of way (and yes, I really did that without catching myself). During my reflections I’ve noticed something about many founders – they’re often truly obsessed with knowing everything. They want answers. They want certainty. They want to feel like…

In this week’s Build I’ve got an exploration of three perspectives on the foundations that shape how founders can work and lead. Rishad Tobaccowala examines the difference between rulers and leaders, Phil Adams looks at how authentic values create competitive advantage and Mike Fisher warns about the hidden costs of cultural neglect. Together these articles make a compelling case that the so called “soft” stuff – values, culture and…