When businesses start relying on memory
When businesses start relying on memory
Untangle is an ongoing exploration of operational clarity, continuity and reducing friction inside businesses.
“Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.”
— W. Edwards Deming
Over the last 12 years, I’ve worked across a surprisingly wide range of businesses.
Saunas.
Online education.
Photography.
Content production.
Performing arts schools.
Sports clubs.
Campaigns.
Creative businesses.
On the surface, they all looked completely different.
But underneath, I kept noticing the same operational patterns appearing again and again.
At first, most businesses operate fairly simply.
Everyone knows where things are.
The founder holds most of the knowledge.
Communication feels manageable.
People remember how things work.
Then the business grows.
More staff.
More clients.
More content.
More platforms.
More moving parts.
And slowly, the business starts relying on memory instead of structure.
Not intentionally.
Usually, because people are moving quickly, solving problems in real time and doing whatever they can to keep things running.
Over time:
files end up scattered
communication becomes fragmented
workflows become reactive
handovers stop happening properly
and important information starts living inside specific people instead of systems
At first, it still works.
Until:
someone leaves
something breaks
the business grows further
visibility disappears
or the mental load simply becomes too heavy to carry manually
That’s the point where operational friction usually becomes impossible to ignore.
I’ve seen versions of this pattern across businesses like:
Clearlight Saunas, Alpha AML, Black on Black, Social Lover, TRFC and Excel School of Performing Arts
Different industries.
Very similar tension underneath.
At Clearlight Saunas, I saw what happens when a business scales over many years and systems need to evolve alongside growth.
At Alpha AML, the work centred around workflows, automations and handover systems designed to create continuity over time.
With Black on Black and Social Lover, the operational challenge often became balancing creative delivery with bookings, editors, contractors, timelines, assets and client communication across multiple moving parts.
At TRFC, complexity came through committees, registrations, volunteers, sponsors, communication channels and handovers between different groups of people.
At Excel School of Performing Arts, the challenge centred around coordination, communication and keeping growing operations manageable behind the scenes.
The industries were different, but the underlying operational weight was often the same.
What I’ve become increasingly interested in through Untangle is not creating overly corporate systems or adding unnecessary complexity.
It’s helping simplify the parts of businesses that slowly become tangled over time.
Because a lot of systems work creates value by:
preventing future chaos
reducing reliance on memory
creating continuity
making transitions easier
reducing mental load later
The interesting thing is that the value is often delayed.
People don’t always appreciate:
structure
handover
documentation
workflows
Until they finally need them.
Then suddenly, they become incredibly valuable.
The best systems often aren’t the ones people constantly notice.
They’re the ones that make businesses easier to operate, easier to hand over and easier to grow without everything depending on one person holding it all together mentally.
Untangle is an ongoing exploration of operational clarity, continuity and reducing friction inside businesses.
“Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.”
— W. Edwards Deming
Reference:
W. Edwards Deming, The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education