Agitated Company

The agitated company shares almost nothing in common with the calm company.

  • Where calm companies underpromise and over-deliver, agitated companies are always swimming in a long list of already-late to-dos. Therefore, agitated companies’ owners work long, hard hours and forgo vacations.
  • Calm companies see the future on the horizon, whereas agitated companies can’t see past tomorrow!
  • Agitated companies leap from one emergency to the next. Therefore the agitated company’s owner and employees cannot trust their calendars, because they will continually add stuff to it, which further agitates things. 
  • Agitated companies jump to attention when a crazy customer sends an urgent request.

We build agitated companies, because at the beginning we have to say “yes” to everything just to keep the lights on. We maintain our agitated companies, because we have created agitated patterns in our business.

You Are Probably An Agitated Company If You:

  • CC everyone on emails.  NOTE: Most emails only need one recipient.
  • Are active in real-time chat (Slack, Hangouts, etc.) NOTE: How we use Slack.
  • Email outside of 9-5 business hours.
  • Send customers/co-workers text messages.
  • Call customers/co-workers cellphones without a meeting scheduled.
  • Don’t have clear processes around sales, communication, etc..

Think You Mighty Be Running an Agitated Company?

If some of the items above resonate with you, consider rebuilding your business into a calm company. I did it, and so can you!

Toby Cryns

(who loves peanut butter)