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

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

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

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

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