There’s an intersection that has been under construction for months. More accurately, the corners have been torn up and cones blocking the right turn lanes. The sidewalks have been closed, causing people in wheelchairs to have to enter the street to navigate the intersection. And while the project clearly started months ago, there hasn’t been any activity to finish it. As a result, the intersection remains clogged as people try to navigate it.

That’s the thing about starting too many things in a business. Stuff gets torn up and creates a chaotic situation when it is not finished. And the tendency is to start the next thing before finishing the project that is underway. It slows everything down and makes people feel like they aren’t making progress.

High-performing companies know that it is better to start fewer projects and finish them before moving to the next. Things actually work better and more progress is made. How are you avoiding chaos in your organization?

The squirrel leapt out of the tree from a relatively high branch and continued to leap across the road. It noticed my dog and I walking up the hill, not far from where it landed, and came charging at us. As my 80 pound dog got wound up, it continued to come straight at us, veering off into a yard just before getting to us. It was a bold move. Clearly, the little critter was confident it could outrun my dog or knew that my dog wasn’t going to get out from her leash.

How often are you that bold? That confident? That gutsy?

On the corner is a parcel of land where water is funneled when it rains to soak through trees and grasses back into the water table. All of the newer neighborhoods have these spots.

These parcels weren’t included in the older neighborhoods. So, the city created rain gardens in key spots. The area has many hills. These rain gardens jut out into the street a few feet and capture the rain water as it runs downhill and feeds it into long, grassy nook where it is filtered back into the ground.

It is a clever way of finding space for a new idea that didn’t fit into the older neighborhood. Sometimes new ideas fit differently into things that already exist than they do when they are created from scratch. How are you making space in your organization for new ideas?

The homes in the neighborhood had lovely front porches where people in the neighborhood would gather and talk. It brought the neighbors together and created a community. The woman sharing the stories talked about how much she enjoyed porching with her neighbors.

It got me thinking about my own neighborhood. The homes are designed with no front porches. The most prominent feature is the garage—a convenient feature for quickly opening the door, pulling in and closing it. But, the design doesn’t facilitate communicating with neighbors.

The same thing can be seen in businesses. Some are designed to facilitate communicating with co-workers. Others are designed to keep people apart. For businesses to be healthy, there have to be built in mechanisms that are designed to get people talking.

How is your business designed? Should you have more porching in yours?

July used to be a wasteland for the retail industry. That was until Amazon introduced Prime Day. And other retailers took notice and followed by introducing competing offers.

This year Amazon set records during its two Prime Days in July. The expectation was sales would be in the range of $5-6 billion dollars.

Pretty astonishing.

But that’s the power of being a top performer in your industry. Top performers create things that didn’t exist before. And people are excited about it.

They change expectations and set new ones.

What can you do to set trends in your industry? To change the game? And set new expectations?

Every now and then the instructor of my favorite class at the gym takes a day off. She is so reliable and is always there, that we hardly ever think about her not being there. And while we all recognize the need and importance for vacation, it throws everyone off because there aren’t subs anywhere near as good as she is. So, people scramble to rejigger their workout schedule for the week.

While clearly a first world problem, figuring out how to get the best workout when your regular instructor is out highlights a dilemma most businesses face. Do you have a strong bench to replace those that are out temporarily or leave permanently?

It is usually the things like vacations that highlight talent gaps. When was the last time you looked at yours?

Just about every day, I see people walking, skateboarding or riding bikes on the freeway. Sometimes they have dogs, sometimes there are a few people together, other times they are by themselves. The freeway is designed for cars and trucks, not people. It used to be unexpected for them to be there. Not anymore.

That’s the thing about the unexpected. At some point the unexpected happens. Then it happens regularly. Then you expect it.

What if you thought about what is unexpected in your business—the good things and the bad things. If they start to happen, what would it be like? And what would you do differently?