Accelerating Performance

Why do some organizations flourish even in turbulent times, while others collapse despite having similar resources? The META system provides an answer.

1. META: A New Management Philosophy

The META framework, standing for Mobilize, Execute, and Transform with Agility, sets a transformative approach to running businesses. Unlike traditional management systems that prioritize outdated hierarchies and rigid processes, META emphasizes adaptability, vision, and speed. At its core, META encourages leaders to focus on what is often dismissed as “soft” components—like culture, shared vision, and relationships—which are essential for long-term success.

META acknowledges the risk of prioritizing speed alone. Chasing short-term gains can lead companies into what is called the “acceleration trap,” a state where running too fast and hard eventually slows them down. Successful companies, on the other hand, combine strategy with agility. Organizations need to balance immediate results with long-term transformation, avoiding the pitfalls of reckless overexertion.

Nets Holding, a Scandinavian payments company, exemplifies META in action. By first analyzing its market deeply (Mobilize), then aligning its team and targeting quick wins (Execute), and finally tackling internal issues for sustainable growth (Transform with Agility), Nets turned declining revenues into rapid gains. This proves that embracing META unlocks real, measurable improvements in both performance and morale.

Examples

• Mobilizing meant that Nets Holding studied market trends, customers, and competitors before making decisions.
• Executing required onboarding new leaders to pursue fresh ideas and hitting smaller, quicker goals to build momentum.
• Transforming involved replacing outdated practices to align with modern efficiency demands.

2. The Balance Between Agility and Structure

Organizations perform well when they strike a balance between being agile in their strategies and having a robust organizational structure. The agility helps companies respond to changes in their markets, while structure provides stability to withstand challenges. One without the other leads to chaos or stagnation.

Strategic agility entails recognizing external changes—such as emerging trends or shifts in competition—and adjusting plans in real time. The ability to “fail fast” helps organizations avoid wasting resources on doomed ideas and instead pivot toward more promising ventures. Meanwhile, an effective organizational structure, built on reliable data, ensures that these agile moves do not unravel long-standing processes.

Consider a beverage company noticing decreased sales with youth demographics. Rather than guessing the problem, it used consumer data to innovate a product line catered to younger tastes. Similarly, a tech firm halted work on an unpopular feature based on user feedback and reallocated resources to stronger opportunities—both examples of adapting with agility while maintaining structure.

Examples

• A tech company dropped a failing project rapidly to refocus resources, safeguarding its competitiveness.
• A multinational beverage firm launched a successful product by aligning customer data with decisions.
• Strategic agility in action helped businesses react to trends like remote work during the pandemic.

3. Teams Demand Psychological Safety

META prioritizes the health and harmony of a company’s teams. Research shows that high-performing teams deliver significantly more value than average ones. A vital factor in their success is psychological safety—an environment where employees feel free to express ideas and concerns without fear of embarrassment or retaliation.

Organizations like Nationwide Building Society embody this principle. They ensure open communication systems where all employees, regardless of rank, contribute to strategic conversations. By doing so, the institution achieved record-high customer satisfaction scores. When employees feel valued, their performance improves, and their engagement deepens.

Psychological safety isn’t just about good feelings—it fosters better decision-making by bringing diverse opinions into the mix. Teams learn and innovate faster, making them strong engines for sustainable growth. Leaders need to encourage active listening and collaborative problem-solving within groups.

Examples

• Nationwide Building Society created spaces for team discussions without judgment, driving better solutions.
• Research indicates that psychologically safe teams are up to 23% more effective.
• Psychological safety enabled an orchestra-like harmony, where every participant’s input improved results.

4. Leadership Through Energy Management

Great leaders understand that their role involves more than commanding teams—they must strategically manage energy, focusing on activities that yield the best outcomes. META advocates for the 80/20 principle: concentrating efforts on the 20% of actions that deliver 80% of the most meaningful results.

Leaders who fail to prioritize burn out and demotivate their teams with scattered focus. On the other hand, deliberate focus energizes both the leader and their team. Leaders who radiate enthusiasm and purpose inspire their workforce to follow suit. For example, startups thrive when founders’ uplifting attitudes fuel team morale despite challenges.

Mood also matters. Leaders set the emotional climate for their teams. Studies show that moods ripple through organizations, either fostering productivity or dampening enthusiasm. As META argues, grumpy leadership is simply not an option in today’s fast-moving world.

Examples

• By focusing energy on fewer high-impact tasks, leaders directly increased team productivity.
• Startups catalyzed growth through the infectious optimism of their founders.
• Positive leadership moods spurred teams to excel during corporate crunch times.

5. Customizing the “Acceleration Recipe”

META emphasizes that no universal solution fits every business. To accelerate effectively, companies must address their own unique strengths and challenges. The recipe for success lies in identifying what drives standout performance—whether it's customer insight, talent acquisition, or process excellence.

The book identifies four broad strategies for success: deeply understanding customers, hiring top talent, managing multiple ventures well, or excelling in core capabilities. The trick is to understand which combination best suits your organization. For example, a luxury brand differentiates itself by knowing its customers’ desires far better than competitors.

Change efforts should also avoid a one-size-fits-all management strategy. Behavioral shifts must match company culture for changes to stick—top-down orders won't suffice. Instead, empowering employees to own their transformations accelerates progress while maintaining engagement.

Examples

• Businesses like Apple achieve exceptional profitability by knowing their customers better.
• Broadcasters thrive by tailoring their behavior shifts to TV audience needs.
• Employee-driven change fosters stronger long-term shifts than edicts from upper leadership.

6. Ripple Intelligence for Smarter Decision-Making

META introduces ripple intelligence—a skill that helps organizations understand the interconnected changes around them. Success lies in spotting market ripples early to capture opportunities or respond to threats. Think of ripples in water, where every external event leads to broader implications.

Effective ripple management requires bringing diverse voices into discussions. An organization can improve its accuracy in predicting market shifts by fostering collaboration between different disciplines. Predictive insights lead to smarter, faster, more forward-thinking decisions.

Training managers in ripple recognition brings quick rewards: even brief predictive training sessions improve long-term decision accuracy by 14%. By looking beyond the immediate challenges, companies create future-ready strategies.

Examples

• Predictive training boosted managerial performance during volatile economic periods.
• Diversity in teams improved the ability to detect shifts early in financial services and retail.
• Early recognition of e-commerce trends gave companies competitive edges.

7. Resource Movement for Efficiency

META champions the concept of resource fluidity, where organizations avoid locking resources like staff or budgets into rigid categories. Greater flexibility allows businesses to realign efforts where they matter most—potentially saving costs and opening growth paths.

Instead of gradually adjusting resource allocation year by year, companies should move faster by centralizing their planning. Managing budgets dynamically can help products reach the market more quickly, beating competitors. This approach liberates previously wasted talent and money.

For example, companies cut wasted steps in projects by removing silos and reallocating staff as demand changed. Players in industries like tech actually shrank overhead costs by adopting fluid planning rather than locking in resources.

Examples

• Flexible budget management freed tech firms from costly delays in innovation cycles.
• Central hubs enabled retailers to shift resources successfully during seasonal changes.
• Operational costs dropped in manufacturing as more dynamic processes replaced static plans.

8. Dissolving Either-Or Problems

META encourages organizations to resolve paradoxes rather than choosing one path over another. Some strategic challenges seem impossible to reconcile—for instance, cost control versus quality. However, META’s “strategic unlock” finds win-win pathways.

Collaboration serves here. Instead of picking between conflicting departmental goals, companies develop dual-purpose dynamics. For example, using customer feedback can not only guide product development but also help build better marketing campaigns.

Breaking either-or frameworks overcomes barriers more effectively than compromise. It fosters innovation—for instance, combining AI technologies with human-centered design solves productivity and emotional engagement dilemmas together.

Examples

• Retailers leveraged AI feedback to improve both customer experience and efficiency.
• Strategic “unlocks” in finance balanced transparency against cost concerns.
• Joint product-service solutions increased success rates in medical device firms.

9. Liquid Leadership: Hierarchy Meets Flexibility

By merging flexible decision-making with traditional hierarchies, META’s liquid leadership model manages chaos without losing order. Liquid leaders empower employees to make empathetic, fast decisions when necessary but retain structures to maintain accountability.

Hierarchy isn’t entirely discarded—you still need a chain of command. But increasingly, command lies with specialized, situational task forces that grow businesses faster. Leaders shift informal authority to where it shows the greatest impact.

Liquid leadership keeps agility actionable. For example, during rapid turnaround efforts like product recalls, companies that empowered quick-decision task teams avoided disasters.

Examples

• Liquid leadership structures sped up tech support decisions in cloud services.
• Flexible yet accountable systems responded nimbly to workplace crises in logistics firms.
• Blending leadership accelerated response times in healthcare organizations.

Takeaways

1. Adopt the META framework by merging strategic agility with structured processes to build adaptive and forward-thinking organizations.
2. Cultivate psychological safety among teams to boost engagement and foster open innovation in all departments.
3. Train leaders in ripple intelligence and flexible leadership models to sustain relevance in fast-changing industries.