People Systems
Long-form thinking on what it takes to scale multi-location service businesses without breaking your management team.
Most operators I work with are not failing at people. They are operating inside structures that quietly make it impossible to win.
This section is where I write about what those structures actually look like, where they break, and what it takes to fix them. Hiring engines, manager accountability, escalation maps, decision infrastructure, and the work of paying down structural debt before it costs you the business.
New articles every other week. Read what's useful. Skip what isn't.
Structural Debt™
Structural Debt™ is the distance between where the business is and where the people operating structure is. Why multi-location operators get stuck answering daily decisions their managers should own — and how to build the people infrastructure that lets them stop being the bottleneck.
Who’s to Blame – The People or The Process
When something goes wrong in a growing business, we tend to blame the person. The manager isn’t strong enough, the employee wasn’t the right fit, we need better hiring. Out team needs training or we just need someone who “gets “it” Sure, sometimes that’s true. But what about the process?
One Organizations Path to Reframing Onboarding as a Cultural Experience: A Case Study
Case Study: Executive leaders at a multi-location, multi-state company believed onboarding was in place. But culture leaned slightly negatively and turnover was still high. What we found was, hourly employees received paperwork and task training, but little else. Many didn’t know who owned the company. Few understood that the business was part of a franchise. We reframed onboarding as an employee experience and everything changed.
Is Your Business Outgrowing Its HR Systems?
Growth is a good problem to have. And early growth rewards informality. If you’ve ever owned or led in a small business, you’re likely familiar with wearing multiple hats. It’s part of our entrepreneurial DNA. We are the scrappy, the doers, the “I’ll figure this out if it takes all-nighters.” But at some point, your business will outgrow its HR systems.
Essays, interviews, and featured writing
Additional articles, guest publications, interviews, and long-form writing on people systems, operational structure, and multi-location execution.
New articles, straight to your inbox
Get the People Systems newsletter on LinkedIn. Field notes on multi-location operations, hiring engines, and what works and doesn't in scaling people systems.
Subscribe on LinkedIn →If your structure is the bottleneck
If anything you read here sounds familiar and you want to talk through what's actually happening in your business, book a discovery call. No pitch, just a conversation.
Book a Discovery Call →