As your agency grows and evolves you're likely to find things get increasingly complex and messy.

Rules and policies — written, implied, or assumed — get slapped over the moving parts like cement, tying the business up when you need fluidity.

Admin grows like rust. Slowing things down, deterring action.

Secrets and assumptions grow like ivy. Getting into the gaps, breaking things up — leading to gossip, guesses, and games-playing.

Low value work builds up like litter. Cluttering the place up with waste.

So a key role for you as a the leader is to use your high-altitude view and your authority to cut away at this.

Once a month have a 'liberation day' where you take some time to explore, think and act on:

  • How can we increase the fluidity of the business? Can we remove, simplify, or clarify rules and policies in the business?
  • How can we increase the momentum in the agency? Can we remove, automate or simplify the admin in the business?
  • How can we increase the openness in the agency? How much more can we communicate, more clearly, to reduce secrets and assumptions?
  • How can we reduce waste in the agency? Removing low-value work and other clutter that builds up.

As you grow, you also have to weed and prune.