What happens to a company when folks realize its purpose is disconnected from reality? Flock Safety is finding out.

In situations where the underlying cause of the issue is structural, swapping in a new CEO doesn’t work. The new leader walks into the same failed (and invisible) Rules layer. The targets and the penalty for missing them haven't moved. The people who learned to smooth results are still there, and so is the founder's influence. So the new leader either keeps the pressure on and inherits the problem, or backs off and gets blamed for missed results. Either way, they're the one w

Founders discover how much of the place was them at the exact moment they can no longer do anything about it. Ted is unusual because he spent three years handing pieces away while he still had the power to keep them. He gave the goldfish to the players. He gave Roy the freedom to find his (f***ing) humanity. He gave Nate a second chance. By the time he got on the plane there wasn’t much more of him that he could’ve given. A year after you go, what would still be running in th

It’s not that hard to find your opposite. Telling that person the things they’re supposed to stop you from doing is, though. Writing down that list means admitting that there’s a chance we’re wrong. Which, I think, is why we generally don’t go through the painful process of doing it. We find our counterweights, and then we don’t give them permission to sit opposite us on the seesaw. We’ll listen to their opinions, but nothing they do can move us until they’re on the same bar

Organizations that can’t identify the people who know stuff that no one has asked them to explain, or can’t help those people learn how to communicate what they know, are ceding control of their organizational knowledge and institutional memory to whatever the next hire brings with them.

An identity connected to one thing has no fallback position. While that thing - like your job - lasts, the connection looks like dedication and commitment, and it’s rewarded and encouraged. But every role ends, and when it does... if you approach it like this... you experience total loss, because there’s nothing left of you to go forward with afterwards.

The working part is the naming. An injury that stays hidden is indistinguishable from personality. The moment it’s made visible, it becomes a fact about you rather than who you are.

We’re stuck with two options. Keep the decision open and pay for it with bursts of energy, or plan ahead and pay for it in missed predictions and wasted effort. Most leaders and orgs pick a lane, and the failure they can't manage is the one that hides in their strength.

Want to know what your culture actually is? Don't read the values page. Don't check at the annual meeting... the annual meeting knows it's being watched. Watch what people do when they think nobody's checking. Every organization has a way it runs naturally, and that default is the real culture.