Growing your business might be the best brain training you’ll ever do
I started my career as a consultant nearly 15 years ago. My first assignment?
Designing an Operating Model for a large, international heavy-equipment retailer.
In my very first briefing with the lead partner, I asked what felt like a dangerous question:
“So…what exactly is an Operating Model?”
She laughed.
I didn’t.
I was convinced I’d just exposed myself as unqualified and that my consulting career might end before it started. Instead, she became one of my best coaches.
She gave me advice I still use today: “Your job is to be one to three steps ahead of your client.”
That meant one thing for me. I had a lot to learn. Fast.
She also said something I’ve never forgotten. She described consulting as a form of “Alzheimer’s prevention.” Not medically, of course—but practically.
You’re always learning new ideas, ways of working, problems, and industries. Your brain is always stretched.
That project ended up delivering over $30 million in savings by restructuring the business to better serve customers. More importantly, it hooked me on the power of a well-designed Operating Model—clarity of roles, decision-making, and focus.
Fast Forward to Today
I was reminded of that early lesson while listening to a podcast with neuroscientist Dr. Tommy Wood, who specializes in long-term brain health. His research suggests that up to 70% of dementia risk is preventable.
One of the biggest factors?
Learning challenging new things over time.
As Wood puts it, learning is a core driver of neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to adapt and rewire itself. He frames brain health around three simple pillars:
Stimulation: how we challenge our minds and bodies
Sleep: rest, recovery, and downtime
Supply: the nutrients that fuel the brain
That idea hit close to home.
Over the past year, I’ve been leading a strategy for a large municipal organization. Internally, things looked good. Strong leadership. Capable people. A well-run operation.
The real pressure wasn’t internal—it was external.
Technology shifts. Geopolitical uncertainty. Changing workforce expectations. Affordability pressures. Complexity everywhere.
The strategy landed on a simple truth: adaptability matters more than ever.
Not just for leaders, but for the entire workforce.
And this isn’t unique to government.
Private businesses are facing the same reality. The world is noisier. The goalposts move. What worked five years ago doesn’t hold up the same way today.
Sometimes it feels overwhelming.
Sometimes it feels like everything, everywhere, all at once.
Growing and scaling your business isn’t just about revenue or systems. It forces you to think differently. To learn. To adapt. To let go of old habits and build new ones.
Clarity, learning, and adaptability aren’t “soft” skills. They’re survival skills. And in today’s world, they might just be your biggest competitive advantage.
What an Operating Model Really Is (and Why It Matters)
An Operating Model is how your business turns strategy into results.
Most owners already have a strategy, even if it lives in their head.
Where things break down isn’t strategy, it’s execution.
Your Operating Model is the system behind the scenes:
How work gets done
How decisions are made
Where people spend time and energy
What the business is truly good at (and where it struggles)
It’s your structures, capabilities, processes, and ways of working, not as theory, but as lived reality.
Why Owners Struggle Without One
In my experience, most owners naturally focus on their Zones of Excellence: the parts of the business they’ve already mastered.
Sales comes easily. Client work is strong. Relationships are solid.
Meanwhile, other areas lag behind:
Operations
Delegation
Financial visibility
Leadership depth
Decision clarity
Over time, a familiar pattern shows up:
Everything becomes a priority
Decisions feel heavier than they should
Everything feels urgent
The business runs on the owner’s effort instead of clear systems.
And when you finally try to fix it all at once, it feels overwhelming.
This is where an Operating Model helps.
How an Operating Model Helps Owners and Leaders
A clear Operating Model helps you:
Focus on what drives results
Prioritize investments instead of spreading effort everywhere
Making decisions faster, with fewer trade-offs
Reducing overwhelm by creating structure and sequence
Scale without becoming the bottleneck
Most importantly, it helps you choose what matters most instead of reacting to whatever is loudest today.
Simple Steps to Build an Operating Model
You don’t need consultants or thick binders to get started.
1. Define Customer Value (Start With the Flow of Work)
Ask one simple question:
What are the high-level steps required to deliver value to our customers?
Example (Professional Services Firm):
Attract the right clients
Diagnose their problem
Deliver the service
Support and retain the client
This is your customer value stream. It’s the backbone of your Operating Model.
2. Identify Business Capabilities (What You Must Be Good At)
Under each step, list the capabilities your business needs to execute well.
Capabilities are not tasks, they’re repeatable abilities.
Example (Step: Attract the Right Clients):
Clear value proposition
Lead generation
Sales qualification
Pricing discipline
At this stage, you’re not judging performance.
You’re asking: What must exist for this step to work?
3. Prioritize What Matters (Stop Treating Everything Equally)
Now comes the uncomfortable part.
Group your capabilities into four categories:
Critical: directly drive results and differentiation
Enablers: support the critical ones
Non-Core: necessary, but not strategic
Non-Essential: nice to have, not needed right now
This is where many owners hesitate, because it forces trade-offs.
4. Assess Maturity (Be Honest)
For your critical capabilities, assess how mature they really are.
Ask:
Is this documented or just in someone’s head?
Does it work without me?
Is it consistent or dependent on heroics?
5. Invest Where It Counts (Sequence, Don’t Spread)
Here’s the mistake most businesses make: They try to fix too many things at once.
Instead, focus on:
The first one or two steps in your customer value stream
The critical capabilities underneath them
Example:
If poor lead qualification creates bad clients downstream, no amount of operational efficiency will fix the problem.
Fix the front end first.
The Bottom Line
An Operating Model isn’t bureaucracy, it’s focus.
It helps you stop reacting. Stop spinning. Stop carrying the business on your back.
Until next time, keep it simple.
Work with NimblShift
When you’re ready, we’d love to help you put this into action. We built a NimblShift Navigator that helps business owners quickly see what matters most. It gives you clarity on:
Where you’re going: a clear, grounded direction
What makes you different: why customers choose you
How you make money: a visual view of cash flow
Capabilities for growth: strengths, gaps, and priorities
Next steps: a short list of actions you can start immediately
This can be completed in under two weeks, through a couple of focused half-day sessions and a practical review of your business. To find out more, hit reply or book a call below, and let's talk.
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