Contempora takes immense pride in its corporate slogan and reputation: Solid Building, On Time, On Budget. However, rapid growth began to strain their internal operations.
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The Challenge: Upstream Friction Points and Balancing Capacity

After working with George and Jason and their management team for a few years, their processes were experiencing natural strain under the pressure of increased volume. The primary challenges were occurring right at the front end of the client experience:

• The company was finding it difficult to get designs, estimates, and proposals back to clients in a timely fashion.
• They were sometimes missing proposal dates committed to by sales.
• The internal time lag between a signed contract and the actual hand-off to the Construction team was longer than desired.

Because their workflow wasn't fully standardized, the amount of duplicated effort in design and estimating was increasing. And George, who was also carrying the weight of being the primary salesperson, found himself heavily involved in the daily mechanics of operations.

1. Understanding the Whole System

To navigate this, the team needed to transition from being "time tellers" to "clock builders," treating their business as an integrated flow of interdependent functions rather than separate departments. 

Early in our work together, we mapped out their Key Function Flow Map (KFFM) to visualize exactly how work moved from an initial prospect into the company and down to the job site.

As volume grew, this bird’s-eye view helped to surface that front-end delays in Pre-Construction (Sales, Design, and Estimating) were impacting the downstream Construction team, shifting project start dates and delaying in-year revenues.

2. Diagnosing Operational Systems

At one point, we used the KFFM Heat Map traffic-light system to diagnose their primary operational constraints. While the downstream Construction team initially showed Red, that diagnostic exercise revealed that the core bottleneck was actually a friction point upstream, being Pre-Construction.

Furthermore, as we dug deeper, we discovered a constraint within that constraint: within the Pre-Construction process itself, the Design department was the ultimate bottleneck. Pushing proposals through with varying procedures was stretching Design's capacity and reducing their ability to turn sold jobs into usable drawings for Construction.

3. Process Mapping and Optimization

I coached the Pre-Construction team through an exercise to map their current workflow. We quickly discovered that projects were being handled differently. There was no single process being consistently followed. This lack of standardization caused occasional rework, extra touch-points with prospects, and delays.

Rather than spending time trying to map a variable current process, we immediately hashed out what the standard, optimized steps should be. We standardized exactly how work should move through each stage of proposal development. By creating a predictable sequence, the team would be able to balance the workload in Design and Estimating, ensure more predictable turnaround times, and reduce the time lag between a signed contract and the Construction hand-off.

4. Employee-Involved Change Leadership

Optimizing processes can never be a top-down exercise. Originally, George considered asking his new salesperson to design a sales process to present to the managers. I counseled him instead to actively involve his pre-construction team from the start, because “people support what they help to create.”

George and his pre-construction team all fully engaged in the process optimization work. Together, they worked through their varying departmental perspectives, aligned their approaches, and arrived at a standardized Pre-Construction process they all thoroughly understood, believed in, and were committed to living by.

The Turnaround: Navigating the Implementation Phase

Transitioning a business toward systemized excellence is a journey, and it often requires course-corrections along the way. The team initially created an implementation plan to improve scheduling of Design and Estimating work to better manage department capacity. However, they initially found it a challenge to execute the scheduling piece due to a skill gap in their pre-construction team.

Recognizing this constraint, the company made a strategic pivot. They hired a dedicated Pre-Construction Manager who possessed solid scheduling skills alongside a deep understanding of sales, design, and estimating. This new leader operationalized the process, bringing accountability and scheduling discipline to the system.

The Result: CEO Freedom to Scale

By designing a disciplined system, Contempora protected and reinforced its reputation for delivering Solid Building, On Time, On Budget.

​A Systems Thinking Approach
 
The premise of The Goal is built on the practice we recommend of "Understanding the Whole System."
 
He introduces three core measurements: throughput (the rate the system generates money through sales), inventory (money tied up in what you intend to sell), and operating expense (what you spend to turn inventory into throughput).
 
The goal is to increase throughput while simultaneously reducing the other two. Not one at a time. This combined goal results in both increased revenue and better profitability. Your company is one integrated system, and every executive decision either helps or hurts that goal.
 
Goldratt argues that most companies are destroying their own performance by optimizing individual departments or production stations in isolation, exactly what happens when managers just manage their own turf instead of the integrated flow of the business.
 
The Key Function Flow Map that we recommend, mapping the inputs, outputs and flows between each function at every level of the company, is what helps executive teams maintain this birdseye view.
 
Diagnosing Constraints
 
Goldratt introduces the Theory of Constraints: every system has at least one constraint that governs the throughput of the entire operation.
 
He illustrates this with a boy scout hike. The troop can only move as fast as the slowest hiker, no matter how fast the kids at the front walk. The solution isn't to push everyone harder. It's to put the slowest kid at the front, lighten their pack, and pace the whole group to their speed.
 
Pushing more volume through every department doesn't increase your overall throughput, it just piles more work in front of your bottleneck.
 
So a key first step is to identify the system’s constraint: the process, department or production station that is holding up the hike.
 
Mapping and Optimizing Processes
 
The next step is understanding exactly how the one constraint currently operates and where it's losing capacity. Current-state process mapping helps reveal what steps in the constraint process are causing the bottleneck, through redundant or unnecessary work, inconsistencies, and errors.
 
Once that local process is optimized, every other process should be run in lockstep with its cadence, so as to not overload it. This whole systems approach maximizes the throughput, while minimizing inventory and operating expense, thereby maximizing profits.
 
Once you've squeezed all you can out of that constraint and aligned other processes with it, invest in increasing its capacity so it is no longer the constraint, thereby increasing the whole system’s throughput potential.
 
Once it is no longer a constraint, another constraint will surface. Repeat this approach.
 
One of Goldratt’s most counterintuitive points: a workplace where everyone is always busy is a sign of inefficiency. Non-bottleneck areas running flat out generate cost without generating throughput, because that flow gets backed up at the constraint.
 
That's uncomfortable for executives who equate busyness with productivity. And it's precisely why the focused diagnostic approach we recommend produces results where broad improvement initiatives often don't.
 
Employee-Involved Change Leadership
 
The fourth practice we recommend to strengthen processes for scalability, employee-involved change leadership, is not explicit in The Goal. Goldratt himself acknowledged this later, writing in his follow-up book What Is This Thing Called the Theory of Constraints that The Goal "highlighted but certainly did not address the major problem of changing the nature of a company."
 
Goldratt does however show operators participating in improvements and uses the “people support what they help to create” dynamic implicitly, having the main characters work with their people to find solutions to their problems, thereby securing their commitment to the changes.

If you are a prairie CEO who wants to grow a thriving company, team and life more quickly, more easily and with less stress and headache, please contact me here.

To get clear on where you’re spending your time, contact me to get the time tracking spreadsheet we use with clients. Or complete the form on this page.

For a comprehensive video on how to take action to get out of the weeds, see my previous 5 Minute Growth Tip video: As a CEO, are you stuck in the weeds?

If you are a prairie CEO who wants to grow a thriving company, team and life more quickly, more easily and with less stress and headache, please contact me here.

​The Fundamental Distinction: Rocks vs. Sand

In the book, Synk builds on the classic Stephen Covey analogy but applies it specifically to the high-stakes world of small-to-mid-size companies.
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• The Sand: This is your day-to-day operations. It’s the customer service calls, the production schedules, the payroll, and the endless questions from your team. It’s necessary. Without sand, you don’t have a business. But it’s also granular and infinite.

 

• The Rocks: These are the strategic moves. These are the big changes, improvements, and growth initiatives that propel the company forward.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the trap for most CEOs is that they become the chief problem solver for the sand, which leaves zero room for the rocks. Synk’s model argues that your job isn't just to manage the sand; it's to identify the rocks and ensure they get executed so that the sand eventually runs more efficiently on its own.

1. Execute the Rocks to Fix the Sand

One of the most powerful insights from Synk’s book is that the Sand is often messy because the Rocks haven't been dealt with. If your leadership team is constantly firefighting (stuck in the sand), it’s usually because of a lack of systems or strategic clarity (missing rocks). By prioritizing a Rock, for example, implementing a Results Tracking System, a Monthly Operating Forecast or the Top Grading hiring system, you are literally changing the nature of your day-to-day operations, the sand.

When you ensure these priorities for change get executed, you aren't adding more work to your own plate; you are building a filter that makes the sand flow smoother. This increases the efficiency of your leadership team because the Rocks have finally been implemented to create the infrastructure they need to succeed without you hovering over them.

2. Getting Your Leadership Team Aligned

In my last tip, we talked about Alignment as the first pillar of getting out of the weeds. Synk takes this further by showing how the Rock & Sand model creates a shared language for the executive team.

The model forces a CEO and their team to create shared clarity on the company’s Growth Roadmap (the term Synk uses for a One Page Strategic Plan). In the book, Synk emphasizes that alignment isn't about everyone liking each other; it’s about everyone agreeing on the company’s goals and priorities and on the critical rocks for the next 90 days.

When your team is aligned on the company’s direction and rocks:

• They know exactly who owns what.
• They understand the long-term direction and don't need to ask you for permission on minor tactical decisions.
• You shift from being the micromanager to the chief clarifier of direction.

3. Executing More Efficiently

The second pillar we covered in my last tip was Execution. Synk’s model provides the meeting rhythm and the predictable cadence that turn strategy into a team sport rather than a CEO burden.

According to Synk, efficient execution happens when the team has visibility into issues before they become fires. By using the Rock & Sand framework to set quarterly targets and rocks, you create a system where the team holds each other accountable.

This is the “proactive flywheel" I mentioned: as the team gets better at executing the rocks, the operational noise of the sand diminishes. This frees you, the CEO, to spend more and more of your time on high-level work, like better understanding your customers’ needs, researching your competition and strengthening your competitive advantage, instead of being dragged back into the weeds.

Stop Firefighting, Start Leading

If you feel like you’re buried in the sand, you aren't alone. But you are stuck in a catch-22. You feel like you don’t have time to build your team and organization because you’re too busy being involved in their work.

The Rock & Sand model helps you focus more on what will make a difference: the rocks. It’s about building the systems that allow your team to achieve great results on their own.

If those pillars aren't solid, you also likely find yourself trapped in what Stephen Covey calls the "sand": the endless day-to-day operational tasks and firefighting. When you are buried in the sand, you aren't working on the "rocks": the big, strategic moves required to grow your company profitably, predictably, and sustainably.

Staying in the weeds causes the company to stay tactically busy but strategically stagnant. It leads to slower progress, limited profitability, and a CEO who is overworked and stressed. 

It’s a catch-22: you feel you don't have time to develop your team because you’re too involved in their work. Instead, gradually break this cycle by putting in place the systems that ensure your team achieves great results on their own.

To start working ON the business instead of IN it, you must master these four pillars:
1. Get Your Executive Team Aligned
2. Get Your Executive Team Executing Efficiently
3. Develop Your Executive Team Into High‑Performing Leaders
​4. Get Your Executive Team Living the Core Values to Drive a Healthy Culture
Let’s discuss each one.


1. Get Your Executive Team Aligned

A CEO can’t be strategic if the leadership team isn’t aligned on where the company is going and what matters most.

Using a One Page Strategic Plan, annual and quarterly planning, clear roles and expectations, and efficient buy‑in, the CEO and team create shared clarity on:

• the long‑term direction
• the big results they’re aiming for
• the top priorities for change
• who owns what
• how decisions get made

When leaders help create the plan, they own it. They can then direct their work toward the company’s goals without the CEO guiding every action or decision.

This shifts the CEO from chief problem solver to chief clarifier of direction.

Alignment is the foundation that makes the next three pillars possible.


2. Get Your Executive Team Executing Efficiently

Once aligned, the team must execute with discipline and predictability.

This is where most CEOs get dragged back into the weeds: unless they install the right systems.

Using a Monthly Operating & Financial Forecast, Quarterly Targets & Priorities, a consistent Meeting Rhythm, and a Results Tracking System, the team gains:

• clarity on what results matter
• visibility into issues before they become fires
• a predictable cadence for solving problems together
• shared accountability for progress and performance

These systems compress all the CEO’s monitoring, checking, and problem‑solving into efficient structured rhythms.

Leaders can see what’s happening, solve issues early, and hold each other accountable, without relying on the CEO. Execution becomes a team sport, not a CEO burden.


3. Develop Your Executive Team Into High‑Performing Leaders

Even with alignment and execution systems, the CEO stays in the weeds if leaders can’t perform at a high level.

Quarterly Coaching Reviews, Personal Assessments, Quarterly Development Plans, and Weekly One‑on‑Ones create a structured approach to developing leaders who:

• understand their performance gaps
• take ownership of their growth
• solve problems independently
• lead their teams effectively
• model the behaviours expected of them

This is how CEOs stop carrying underperforming leaders or repeatedly coaching the same issues.

As leaders grow, the CEO can step back because the leadership team is finally capable of running the business.


4. Get Your Executive Team Living the Core Values to Drive a Healthy Culture
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A healthy, values‑driven culture is not soft. It is one of the most practical tools for keeping the CEO out of the weeds.

Defining core values with specific behaviours, sharing core value stories, coaching for cultural alignment, and using Topgrading to hire high culture‑fit leaders ensures:

• fewer interpersonal issues
• less drama and friction
• more collaboration
• stronger team cohesion
• higher performance across the organization

This means more time for the CEO to focus on the big picture. 

And when leaders model the values, their teams follow. This reduces the operational noise that often pulls the CEO back into the business.

A healthy culture is a self‑reinforcing system, one that frees the CEO to lead strategically.


The Proactive Flywheel

This transition won't happen overnight, but as you tackle each pillar, you create a virtuous cycle. By freeing up your time, you can focus on the higher-level work: refining strategy, gathering customer feedback, and succession planning. 

Even better, you can then have your leaders implement these same four pillars in their own teams. This increases your organization's overall capacity to achieve its long-term vision.

The first of these practices, defining core values with specific behaviors, is the foundation. Without clear, observable standards, culture remains a Growth Tax that creates friction and drains energy. When you define exactly what is expected, you give you and your executive team the tools to hold each other and others accountable.
​
This process is adapted from the "Mission to Mars" exercise popularized by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their best-selling book Built to Last.

Here are the four steps to defining core values with specific behaviors:

1. Identify the “Culture Ambassadors”
The first step is for the leadership team (LT) to individually identify the top five people in the company (outside the LT) they would send to Mars to represent the best of the company's culture to a group of Martians who don’t speak English. You aren't looking for what these people say about your culture; you are looking for how they behave.

Each LT member writes down the specific characteristics that make these individuals ambassadors. When the team shares these names and traits, you aren't looking for common people, but common themes of traits. These themes reveal the values that are already real and noble within your organization, rather than aspirational slogans.

2. Pass the Core Value Litmus Test
Once you have identified potential values, they must pass a rigorous three-part test to be considered "Core." A value is only core if:

• You would fire for it: Would you remove a persistent offender, even if they were a high producer?
• ​You would take a financial hit for it: Would you walk away from a profitable customer or supplier who violated this value, for the sole reason that it’s “not right” and hurts your culture?
• It is real today: Are there people on the LT and in the company who clearly live this value right now?

Crucially, the CEO must fully believe in each value. If the CEO isn't 100% committed to the hurt of upholding a value, they will never be motivated to hold their team accountable to it. And if their team isn’t living the values, the rest of the organization won’t either.

3. Create Unique and Memorable Phrases
To prevent values from sounding trite or like a corporate fad, create a brief, 3-to-5-word memorable phrase for each one. This phrase should reflect the day-to-day speak of your company. For example, instead of just saying "Integrity," you might use "Do the right thing".

Keeping the phrase short ensures it is memorable and can be used in hallways and meetings. Putting the original value word in brackets right after the phrase provides clarity, while the unique phrase provides the soul of the organization.

4. Define Tangible, Observable Behaviors
The final step is to define three specific behaviors for each core value. To save time, use AI as a starting point. Provide the AI with your industry and company size, and ask it to generate tangible and observable behaviors for your specific values.

​The moment of truth happens in the editing. The LT and CEO must rigorously review and adjust every word of these drafts to ensure they reflect exactly how they expect people to behave. If you don't do the hard work of making these behaviors your own, you won't have the conviction to enforce them. And if you don’t enforce them, no one will take them seriously and your culture will erode, along with performance.

1. Defining Core Values with Specific Behaviors 

After the toxic leader was removed, the team revisited their core values. They paid special attention to the value of Learning. They realized they needed to move away from knowledge hoarding. They defined Learning not as formal training, but as a daily verb: being curious, self-reflection, being coachable, and, critically, educating those around them. This reset the expectations for everyone in the company.

2. Sharing Core Value Stories

To make these values stick, we introduced a ritual. At every monthly and quarterly meeting I facilitated, I asked the leaders to share one great thing an employee had done that month and identify which core value it represented. While it felt awkward at first, it soon sparked a new energy. It made it crystal clear what right behaviour looked like and created a healthy peer pressure to lead by example.

3. Coaching for Cultural Alignment
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Even before the team fully implemented Job Scorecards, the defined values became the "North Star" for coaching. The CEO was finally able to move away from subjective "feelings" and clearly articulate: "This is the behavior we expect here, and your current actions are not aligned with that." Having a shared language for behavior allowed the CEO to address issues with objectivity and firmness.

Tuesday, April 28, 2026 - 6-7:15 pm in MB, 5-6:15 pm in SK
NON-MEMBER: $99* (incl. a copy of the book) | MEMBER: $0*​

In the next 5 Minute Growth Tip, I’ll share the story of one of the clients we’ve worked with in this area and others.

There are many challenges to growing a thriving mid-size company (as I’ve shared in this 5 Minute Growth Tip article series). And sometimes it can feel like we’re stuck, like there's nothing we can do.

We may hide those thoughts and feelings from others, or even deny to ourselves that we have them. Yet, they still remain in the background of our thinking, gnawing away at our focus, energy and progress.

This is an opportunity to check our thinking.

Our thinking drives our actions. And our thinking can cause us to not take action. 

When we think there’s nothing we can do about a problem, we’ll naturally stand still on that issue. When we believe we can resolve it, we’ll find a solution and drive forward.

Organizational psychologists have researched these two ways of thinking. They are part of what’s called our “locus of control”.

The first way of thinking is that our situation is controlled by things that happen outside of us. We believe we are a victim of circumstances.

This is an external locus of control.

The second way of thinking is that our situation can be influenced by what we do. We believe we can always do something that will make a situation better.
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This is an internal locus of control.

Think of the word “locus” as “location”. Is our thinking putting the “location” of control of the situation outside of ourselves (external) or within ourselves (internal)?

As human beings, we tend to grow up with a tendency toward either an internal locus of control or an external one.

We don’t think exclusively one way or the other, but rather predominantly.

We also don’t necessarily think one way about everything. There can be areas of our lives and facets of our business that we treat with an internal locus of control mindset, and other areas that we tend to treat with an external locus of control.

As entrepreneurs and business leaders, we often predominantly have an internal locus of control: we believe we can make things happen. 

However, we can also have an external locus of control in certain areas.

For example, we might have an internal locus of control about getting more sales. We know that our actions directly influence our company’s sales volumes, and we look for and find ways to increase them.

Yet, we might have an external locus of control about being able to hire A players. We may believe that there just aren’t any really strong employees out there, or none of them are looking for work, or they all want too much money, or they all hide their faults in interviews, etc.

By switching our thinking to an internal locus of control in this area, we can find solutions.

We can ask ourselves, “what is it that I’m doing that is getting in the way of hiring A players?”  Or “what am I not doing, or not doing well?” And from there, we can ask “what can I do differently to find A players?”

For example, do I have a clear description of what an A player will produce so I know exactly who I am looking for? What am I doing to network with A players I know in my industry who likely know other A players? Have I shopped around for an excellent recruiting company who can help me find the right people? Have I strengthened my interviewing skills to discover candidates’ true strengths, abilities and qualities? Have I learned to do effective reference checks to get the perspectives of those who’ve seen the candidates in action?

Believing we have influence over the situation causes us to look for solutions we can act on.

There’s also a way that an entrepreneur’s strong internal locus of control in one area can actually create an external locus of control mindset in another area. I often see this struggle with CEOs and owners I meet.

They complain that they don’t have enough time.

This complaint is coming from an external locus of control mindset: the belief that their lack of time is happening to them. (Note that all complaining and blaming is really a form of external locus of control).

When I invite a CEO or owner to flip their mindset to an internal locus of control, and ask themself what they are doing that is causing them to not have enough time, they realize that they are causing the problem.

They often are attempting to tackle every problem and opportunity that comes up, and they are not delegating tasks and roles enough.

In this way, as entrepreneurs, our internal locus of control about solving problems can cause us to have an external locus of control about time.

Our tendency to think we can take control of any situation, like solving every problem, actually causes us to be so busy that we think we don’t have control of our time. Yet we do. We just need to change how we tackle problems, for example, by equipping others to take care of them rather than solving them ourselves.

This mindset is a key linchpin in growing a thriving mid-sized company. The only way to grow and grow profitably, is to implement the structures, systems and processes to enable that growth. This requires a leadership team that handles the day-to-day and can help with implementing many of those systems. These systems need to be guided by a solid strategy for competing in the market. That strategy needs to be executed efficiently. And efficient execution requires an A player leadership team. And all of these business practices take time.

As a result, a CEO or owner will want to shift their mindset more fully to thinking about what they are doing, or not doing, that is causing them to be too busy to work on these practices. By doing so, they will get clear on what they need to do differently to free themselves up to shift increasingly from doing to leading.

And, more generally, the practice of internal locus of control will help any leader, and their top team, look at how they’re contributing to a problem, and what they can do to influence it.

Another way leaders contribute to problems in their company is by trying to figure things out all on their own. We’ll tackle that topic in my next 5 Minute Growth Tip article.


What can you do to grow your mid-size company?
To find out what you and your leadership team could do to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.