5 stages towards running your business on autopilot

Step away from daily operational piloting without plunging your plane into the sea.

Leon van der Laan

January 07, 2023

Reading time: 4 minutes

Welcome to the very first issue of Refresh. Rethink. - your weekly Saturday morning cookie next to your steaming cup of black gold.

In this pilot issue, I want to give you my insights into what are the 5 stages a business usually has to pass before it can be run on autopilot.

Why am I sharing this? I believe that strategy, organization, leadership, and productivity are over-complicated and academic. But all of these are necessary ingredients for starting a company and, eventually, having it run on auto-pilot.

That's why I’m on a long-term mission to help 1M entrepreneurs find and switch on the autopilot mode of their business.

How?

I want to make strategy, organization, leadership, and productivity simple and actionable for every business owner, no matter their previous experience.

Thanks for reading this short intro, and now let’s dive in!?

2020, remote and autonomous organizations

2023 is here. Yep, that little thunder and flash you’ve heard was 2022, and it’s now over. The good thing is, we’re now 3 years ahead of 2020 - the year that changed it all, for better or for worse.

One of those changes was the infamous remote work revolution. It was the ultimate ping-pong game in the office: in-out - in-out - in-out.

Everyone got confused (except for Elon Musk). Most companies chose the middle way: Hybrid.

To me, hybrid is like standing in the middle of the road. And people who stand in the middle of the road tend to get run over if you ask me.?

Not for everyone though! Respect to the companies that took the leap and went all-in on Remote-first. They understood something deeper about their organization. They understood that being remote requires autonomy.

An autonomous organization runs on its own whether the entrepreneur is there or not. It is the ultimate balance between vision, boundaries, plans, and systems in place.

With my clients, I see the level of autonomy in the organization as one of the best predictors of success as a remote company. Whether you are remote-first or not, autonomy in the organization is your ultimate goal as an entrepreneur. Not finding and switching on the autopilot of your organization will make your business nothing more than a glorified job.

I want to help you understand in a very simple way that every organization has several stages of autonomy.?

Let me give you the 5 stages of running your business on autopilot with the example of a human pilot and their plane.

5 stage of autonomy: from hands-on-the-stick to autopilot

Stage 1

The first plane, back in 1900-something, required both hands on the flight stick at all times. The pilot used their very own judgment for every jerk on that stick. Ending up death often by one little miscalculation.

This is the autonomous organization 1.0 - most new businesses begin here, taking part in every decision, not just managing but executing a lot as well.

Stage 2

A few decades later planes got dashboards. A few metrics gave the pilot supportive decision-making data. It reduced the risks of his.....

Want to learn about the other 3 stages? Read the rest of this article here > Go to full article

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See you on the other side!