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A weekly exploration of firms like yours
Every Step in Your Firm Needs One Owner
Adam Smith's pin factory made 48,000 pins a day because every step had an owner. Here's how small law and advisory firms can map theirs in a few minutes.
The Meeting Most Firms Skip After a Big Win
The value of celebrating wins and holding a retrospective.
The Enigmatic Black Box In Your Business
Flight recorders, black boxes in engineering, and all of the ones inside your business.
Most Successful Businesses Look the Same. Most Failures Don't.
Tolstoy's most famous line explains why some animals can be domesticated and others can't. It also explains why some clients, hires, and partnerships fail.
Progress for Progress's Sake is a Trap
Early humans assumed farming was strictly better than hunting and gathering. It wasn't. Here's what that mistake teaches about growing your business blind.
Second-Degree Signals: Equipping Your Referral Partners
Most referral opportunities never get asked for directly. Here's how to listen for the life-event signals that tell you who actually needs an introduction.
The Octopus Knows When to Let Go. Do You?
The octopus doesn't wait around hoping a bad situation resolves itself, it inks, escapes, and moves on. Here's what that teaches about cutting losses in business.
The Octopus Never Waits for the Whole Picture. Neither Should You.
The octopus never waits for a complete picture before acting, and neither should you. Here's how to make confident decisions on imperfect information.
The Octopus Doesn't Only Have One Move. Neither Should You.
The octopus doesn't rely on one disguise, it switches between three, each chosen for what's actually in front of it. Here's what that means for how you show up in a room.
The Octopus Test: Real Constraint or Just an Excuse?
Most reasons business owners give for not delegating aren't real constraints, they're habits in disguise. Here's how to tell the difference and test yours.
You Are the Central Brain. Your Team Is the Arms.
An octopus's arms can hunt, solve problems, and act independently without checking in with the central brain. Most firm owners have built the opposite.
Nine Brains, Three Hearts, and No Spine. Meet the Octopus.
The octopus is colorblind yet matches any color in milliseconds. It has nine brains and no skeleton. Everything it knows, it learned alone. We are just getting started.
The Crow Doesn't Keep the Knowledge to Itself.
Crow families pass knowledge across generations deliberately. Most professional service firm owners do the opposite. The business functions when they're there and evaporates when they leave.
The Crow Understands Why the Tool Works. Do You?
New Caledonian crows don't memorize solutions. They understand principles well enough to solve problems they have never seen before. Most business owners can't say the same.
The Crow Holds a Postmortem. Do You?
When a crow dies, the flock investigates. They learn what killed it and share the lesson broadly. Most business owners skip this step entirely.
The Crow Knows What It's Looking For. Do You?
Crows don't hunt for any food. They have an exact image of what they want before they start looking. Your referral network works the same way.
Your Reputation Is Traveling Without a Chaperone.
Crows remember one bad interaction and teach it to their offspring. Your referral network works the same way. What is it saying about you right now?
Welcome to Crow Season. You've Been Underestimating Them.
Crows use tools, plan for the future, recognize individual faces, run counter-surveillance, and pass knowledge across generations. Still feeling superior?