​Don't Start with the Metrics

Teams outperform when work feels safe, clear, and doable.

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We install clarity and weekly rhythm first, then a few objectives, and only then do we add metrics people own. 

 

Further Reading:

Scientific American, What Humans Could Be - The father of humanistic psychology, Abraham Maslow, and his 'Theory Z': how truth, goodness, meaningfulness, and simplicity in the workplace align with your mission.

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Amy Edmondson (1999), Psychological Safety & Learning Behavior - Gold-standard empirical evidence that teams with psychological safety learn more and perform better.

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Rhythm of business

Simple planning cadences create stability in motion.

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Organizations often juggle grants, board meetings, and business cycles. A predictable operating rhythm—weekly, monthly, quarterly—helps leaders respond to change without losing focus.

 

Further reading:

Microsoft: Rhythm of Business Empowering Teams to Succeed – Microsoft Australia redesigned its Rhythm-of-Business to cut low-value meetings, reducing follow-ups and improving team connection.

Atlassian: Rolling 4 — Quarterly Company Planning – A quarterly ritual that balances reflection and forward planning.

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Culture

Culture is how your team does its work when no one is watching—or emailing.

 

Whatever your org's culture, asynchronous norms reduce meetings and empower clarity. These guides are essential for teams with distributed members, volunteers, or boards.

 

Further reading:

Netflix's Culture Deck - The best look at building culture through alignment with Netflix's orginal HR leader, Patty McCord

 

Coaching & manager effectiveness

Great execution flows from great managers.

 

Google studied its best leaders and found that coaching, not command, was the highest-value skill. We help leaders adopt these behaviors, not just manage from checklists.

 

Further reading:

Google’s Project Oxygen (via Re:Work) – Traits of high-impact managers.

CNBC summary of Oxygen findings – Results of Google's Oxygen 10 behaviors.

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Strategy (diagnosis → guiding policy → actions)

If you don’t have a diagnosis, you can’t have a strategy.

 

We use Richard Rumelt’s “kernel” to clarify what’s blocking progress and align the right actions. It’s the spine of our Ops Playbook.

 

Further reading:

McKinsey interview with Rumelt – The three-part test of strategy.

 

Decision-Making (speed, clarity, roles)

Clarity is faster than consensus.

 

Slow decisions are often unclear ones. We use simple heuristics and role frameworks to help teams move with 70% of the info and confidence in who decides what.

 

Further reading:

Amazon 2016 Shareholder Letter – “Two-way doors” and 70% clarity.

Atlassian’s DACI Framework – What the DACI framework is and how it improves results.

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Change management (a few cautionary tales)

Pace matters. So does stakeholder trust.

 

Fast change isn’t always good change. Learn from what worked at LEGO—and what flopped at J.C. Penney.

 

Further reading:

LEGO Turnaround Case (CEO Mag) – Simplicity + focus = recovery. A lesson for orgs tempted to “do it all.”

JC Penny Mistakes (HBR) – A good example of how not knowing your customer can affect your strategy.

 

 

Meetings (make them work—or get rid of them)

Meetings should be tools, not rituals.

 

We help orgs shift from calendar clutter to focused, high-leverage touchpoints.

 

Further reading:

Amazon 2017 Shareholder Letter – How replacing slides with 6-page memos resulted in better meetings.

NPR on Shopify’s Meeting Purge – 322,000 hours deleted. "Meetings are not in and of themselves the problem. Bad meetings are."

 

 

Revenue (fundraising & revenue operations trends)

Small donors are shrinking. Big donors are moving faster.

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A look at Revenue Operations (we're HubSpot Certified) and how nonprofit boards understand the shifting landscape—and why capacity-building isn’t a luxury.

 

Further reading:

Giving USA 2025 – The big picture: $592B in 2024, driven by stock gains.

AFP Fundraising Effectiveness Q4 2024 – Strategic opportunities with the reported change in giving.

Daniel House Club: HubSpot RevOps implementation – data centralization, pipeline alignment, dashboards, and measurable lifts in conversion, membership, and relationship creation.

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How we use these

We draw from these references to tailor solutions that stick. When we helped an org reduce handoffs, we used async norms and meeting hygiene from GitLab and Shopify.

 

When another org needed better decision-making, we brought in DACI and the Eisenhower Matrix.

 

When coaching managers, we ground them in truth, goodness, meaningfulness, and simplicity that support Edmondson's and Maslow's research.

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These aren’t just links. They’re tools we’ve tested and know they work.

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