If Your Ops Data Isn’t Changing How You Lead, It’s Just Noise | Build systems that drive decisions—not dashboards that sit unread.

Stop building dashboards that don’t drive change. A good data system doesn’t just automate reporting—it restructures how your business sees itself. Here’s how to build one that actually shifts how you lead.

Len MusielakJuly 7, 2025#Operations, #DataStrategy, #Leadership, #DigitalTransformation, #SystemsThinking, #BusinessIntelligenceComment

Your Ops Leader Shouldn’t Be a Subject Matter Expert | They don’t need to know the tool—they need to know how the whole machine runs.

Your operations leader doesn’t need to know every tool—they need to know how the whole machine works. This post unpacks why subject matter expertise can get in the way of systems-level leadership, especially under pressure.

Len MusielakJune 30, 2025Comment

Your Internal Support System Wouldn’t Survive 5 Minutes with Customers | Your employees are your most important customers. Treat them like it.

Employees shouldn’t need a map to get help. If your internal support system wouldn’t survive five minutes with customers, it’s time to redesign it—because your employees are your most important customers.

Operations Strategy, Leadership, Leadership in Action, StrategyLen MusielakJune 23, 2025#Operations, #InternalSupport, #Leadership, #OrgDesign, #EmployeeExperience, #SHIELDIllinoisComment

Growing v. Scaling | How I Build Companies That Scale Without Breaking

Growth gets the headlines. But scaling? That’s where companies break—or break through. This post breaks down my approach to building systems that let companies grow fast without losing their footing, based on real lessons from companies like SHIELD Illinois.

Operations Strategy, Strategy, LeadershipLen MusielakJune 16, 2025#Operations, #Scaling, #Leadership, #SystemsThinking, #SHIELDIllinois, #GrowthStrategy, #OpsLeadershipComment

What a Good Ops Integration Actually Looks Like

Good ops integration isn’t about who won the deal. It’s about what you build together. This post walks through what integration should look like—and how ego and mistrust destroy potential before it even starts.

Leadership, Operations Strategy, Strategy, Case StudiesLen MusielakJune 9, 2025#OpsLeadership, #Integration, #MergersAndAcquisitions, #OrganizationalTrust, #PostAcquisition, #CorporateCultureComment

Keep the Goldfish in the Tank: Stop Letting Meetings Expand to Fill the Hour

Meetings are like goldfish—they grow to the size of their tank. If you give them an hour, they’ll take an hour. This post challenges default meeting durations and lays out a case for shorter, sharper, more effective conversations. Stop scheduling 60 minutes. Keep the goldfish in the tank.

Strategy, Leadership, Leadership in ActionLen MusielakJune 2, 2025#Meetings, #Productivity, #Leadership, #OperationalExcellence, #WorkplaceCultureComment

Is It an Emergency? It’s Usually Not. | Trust Me, It Can Wait.

Most workplace emergencies aren’t emergencies. They’re just symptoms of poor prioritization and unclear expectations. This post breaks down how to define true emergencies and structure escalation before everything feels urgent.

Leadership, Leadership in Action, StrategyLen MusielakMay 26, 2025#Leadership, #OpsCulture, #Urgency, #EscalationFramework, #WorkplaceStress, #SHIELDIllinoisComment

You’re Not Scaling Culture. You’re Scaling Chaos. What your childhood toolset and your flat org have in common.

Flat orgs feel empowering—until they fall apart under their own weight. As companies grow, the nostalgia of early connection often gets in the way of the structure required to scale. This post uses a childhood toolset as a metaphor for why clinging to “flatness” is less about culture and more about control—and how SHIELD Illinois grew fast by adding structure, not red tape.

Operations Strategy, Leadership in Action, Strategy, LeadershipLen MusielakMay 19, 2025#OrganizationalDesign, #Leadership, #Growth, #FlatStructure, #CommunicationHierarchy, #OpsLeadership, #SHIELDIllinoisComment

The CC Epidemic: How Email Reveals Organizational Immaturity | You Don’t Need an Audience. You Need Accountability.

Strategy, Leadership, Leadership in ActionLen MusielakMay 12, 2025#OrganizationalDesign, #Leadership, #Communication, #OpsLeadership, #EmailEtiquette, #SHIELDIllinoisComment

Not Every Seat Needs a Suit: When Executives Over-Attend, Teams Underperform

When executives over-attend meetings, teams underperform. This post breaks down how leadership presence—when overdone—creates bottlenecks, erodes ownership, and signals a lack of trust. The best way to empower your team? Step out of the room.

Strategy, Leadership, Leadership in ActionLen MusielakMay 5, 2025#Leadership, #Meetings, #Empowerment, #ExecutivePresence, #Delegation, #OpsLeadershipComment

Return to Office? Try Mandated Remote Instead. Before You Mandate Return to Office, Mandate Remote Weeks

Return-to-office mandates are everywhere. But if you lead a multi-location company, you’re focused on the wrong test. Try this instead: mandate a remote week for your HQ team and see what breaks. What fails without hallway access or proximity? That’s where your structure is weakest—and where scale will fail.

Operations Strategy, Leadership, Leadership in ActionLen MusielakApril 28, 2025#RemoteWork, #Leadership, #Operations, #ProximityBias, #OrgDesign, #FieldTeams, #SHIELDIllinoisComment

Everyone Wants to Be a Lion… Until It’s Time to Do Lion S**t

Everyone loves the strategy deck. But the operating model? That’s where the hard choices live—who stays, who goes, what gets cut, and who’s really ready to lead. This is a post about the gritty side of strategy execution—the side no one likes to talk about but every leader has to face.

Operations Strategy, Leadership in Action, LeadershipLen MusielakApril 24, 2025operating models, leadership, organizational design, strategic execution, accountability, scaling teams, culture and structure, grit in leadershipComment

Let Them Shovel the Snow: Leadership Means Letting Go

I used to think great leadership meant doing it faster, better, smarter. But it turns out, one of the most powerful things a leader can do is… nothing. Not because they’re checked out—but because they’ve built an organization that doesn’t need them in every decision. This is a story about a snow shovel, a shutdown, and the real meaning of delegation.

Leadership, Leadership in ActionLen MusielakApril 24, 2025leadership, delegation, team development, operations, shield illinois, strategic thinking, growth mindset, managementComment

How We Built a $200M Testing Operation in 12 Months—During a Global Crisis: What SHIELD Illinois Taught Me About Scaling Fast Without Losing Control

How we built a $200M statewide COVID testing operation from scratch—in just 3 months.

Case Studies, Operations StrategyLen MusielakApril 21, 2025Crisis Operations, COVID Response, Public Health Logistics, Startup at Scale, Government PartnershipsComment

Beyond the Scorecard: How We Built a Global Distributor Management System for Abbott Point of Care

How an EMBA project became the foundation for scalable ops built on trust and performance.

Case Studies, Operations StrategyLen MusielakApril 14, 2025Global Operations, Distributor Management, S&OP Strategy, Executive MBA Project, Performance SystemsComment

Fixing the Release Cycle: How a Kanban Transformation Delivered Liquidpoint’s First On-Time Release in Two Years

After two years of missed software release deadlines, Liquidpoint needed more than just better estimates—they needed an operational overhaul. Here's how I uncovered the root cause and rebuilt a delivery system that just worked.

Operations Strategy, Case StudiesLen MusielakApril 2, 2025Operational Excellence, Agile, Software Delivery, Kanban, Root Cause Analysis, Turnaround, Execution, StrategyComment

Calm in Chaos: What 50,000 Runners Taught Me About Operational Leadership

What 50,000 runners taught me about calm, trust, and leading high-stakes ops in real time.What 50,000 runners taught me about calm, trust, and leading high-stakes ops in real time.

Case Studies, Leadership in ActionLen MusielakApril 2, 2025Live Event Operations, Volunteer Leadership, Execution Under Pressure, Operational Discipline, Field LogisticsComment

You're solving the wrong problem.

Companies are approaching training from the wrong angle. Don't make people learn Latin to learn physics. Translate it for them.

Len MusielakDecember 17, 2020Comment

Want to change your culture? Get in the weeds.

The politics in the middle management level of most organizations is designed to make sure executives don’t really know what the culture is really like. The only way to get past it is to dive into the weeds.

Len MusielakDecember 15, 2020Comment

Changing Strategy? Focus on the Negative.

Far too often, we forget that strategy is as much about what we are NOT doing anymore as it is about what we are doing that is new

Len MusielakDecember 4, 2020Comment

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