My great privilege in life is no longer needing to run the day-to-day operations of any organization. After many years of being ultimately responsible for
Software Product Development in a Time of Pandemic
The full economic impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic has yet to be determined. But even as I write (March 16, 2020) it’s become very
Eleven unquestioned assumptions of business – and why they’re wrong
Atomic will be nineteen years old this June. Part of my journey over those years has been figuring out ways of doing business — and
Adding a Socially Responsible Fund to Atomic’s 401(k)
In 2019, several Atoms asked about adding a socially responsible investment fund offering to our 401(k) retirement plan. I took on the task of investigating
A framework to define and describe organizational culture
Everyone knows how important culture is. The right culture is attractive to talent and gets you through internal challenges and external shocks. A toxic culture
Atomic Ownership, Part 6: Lessons Learned
Our non-ESOP approach to employee ownership meant we got to determine how our program worked. The legal advice we got was very helpful, but it
Encouraging Professional Growth with the “Career Development Manager”
Atomic’s most valuable resource is our people (whom we call Atoms). It’s our goal to provide them with meaningful work, pay a fair salary, live
Sacrificing Robustness for Expediency – A Story about Fragility
“A plan that’s too dependent on any one person is too fragile.” Derek Sivers Pairs of people working together make a project or situation more
Atomic Ownership, Part 5: Distributions
Why own shares in a company with a goal of being 100 years old? You definitely shouldn’t be hoping for a big payday when
Inheriting a Team Successfully by Managing for Growth
As leaders within organizations, we rarely get to start our own team from scratch. We receive teams as they were formed. Often, we have limited