🤼 Chaotic visionaries vs. operations sticklers

Warning!

This newsletter may cause harmony between your idea generators and order keepers.

You know who I'm talking about.

On one side, you've got the idea machine.

The visionary.

The one who's always thinking ten steps ahead, spewing out ideas like a broken fire hydrant.

On the flip side?

Your operations team.

The ones trying to keep the ship sailing smooth while you're busy dreaming up the next big thing.

Here's the thing:

You need both to grow a great business.

But…

It can be a disaster if you don't strike the right balance.

So how do you balance the chaos and the order without driving everyone nuts?

Here's what I've learned…

Give your ideas a home.

Create a dedicated space for all those “what ifs” — think of it as a sandbox for your brain.

We use a Slack channel called “Good Idea Brigade.”

It's where I dump all my random thoughts without derailing the entire operation.

This does two things:

• It gives me a place to capture ideas so I don't forget them

• It keeps me from blasting the entire company with every half-baked notion that pops into my head

Trust me, your team will thank you for this one.

Make it clear when you’re brainstorming.

I am a “think-out-loud” kinda guy.

Total verbal processor.

When brainstorming out loud, I’ve learned it’s crucial to let your team know that!

Why does this matter?

If you don't, your team might think every idea that comes out of your mouth is a new directive.

Next thing you know, they're scrambling to implement something you were just noodling on.

A simple “I'm just thinking out loud here” can save your team hours of unnecessary stress and work…

And gives them permission to listen without feeling the pressure to act immediately.

Respect the process (both ways) 🤝

This is a two-way street, folks.

Visionaries:

Your off-the-cuff comment might be interpreted as a direct order three levels down.

Be mindful of your audience.

What sounds like a casual suggestion to you might be taken as a top-priority mandate by someone else.

Operators:

Sometimes a little chaos is necessary for innovation.

Don't shut down every wild idea immediately—it’s okay to give it a moment to breathe.

You might be surprised at what sticks!

Empower your ops team

This is so important.

Your company culture needs to make it clear that ops has the authority to push back or delay implementation.

Why? Because they're in the trenches. They know what's feasible and what's not.

If you don't empower them to speak up, you'll end up with a bunch of half-baked projects and a burnt-out team.

Trust me, a strong ops team that feels empowered to push back will save you from yourself more times than you can count.

Celebrate the wins (big and small)

When a crazy idea turns into a successful implementation, make some noise about it.

Celebrating these wins does something crucial: it reinforces the value of this push-and-pull dynamic between visionaries and ops.

Plus, it keeps both sides engaged.

The visionaries see their ideas coming to life, and the ops team gets recognition for making it happen.

When you get this balance right, magic happens.

Ideas start turning into reality faster.

Your team becomes more adaptable.

Your business growth goes through the roof.

Here's the thing – achieving this balance is easier said than done.

Especially when you're dealing with a global team.

That's where Sagan Passport comes in.

We're here to change how you build and run your global team – think of us as your international talent accelerator.

Here's the deal:

Most companies treat global hiring like a game of darts: throw enough and hope one sticks.

But at Sagan Passport, we've turned it into a science.

We help connect you with elite global talent…

Give you all the systems and playbooks you need to maximize their impact on your business…

And bring you into our powerful community of business leaders all looking to scale with global talent.

The best part?

We’ve made the process of scouting, hiring, and integrating global talent super easy.

“It’s that lack of friction with Sagan. Every single Sagan hire we've made is doing well. It’s not just global talent. It’s about [building] leverage in general.” - Rich Jordan, CEO of Strongpoint Services

“We will absolutely be adding additional Global Talent through Sagan. It's just been too easy and too successful not to. It's forcing us to think differently about how we structure our business.” - Ken Otto, SVP/GM, Accelerated Media Technology

With Sagan Passport, you’ll join a powerful community dedicated to helping your business succeed…

By getting the most value from your overseas talent.

Want to see how we can help transform your business?

Book a short 15-minute call with our team here.

We'll walk you through how to set up and run a global dream team that will help you dominate Q4 and beyond.

Yallah Habibi,

Jon

Passage of the Week

"If you're excited about some possibility that everyone else ignores, and you have enough expertise to say precisely what they're all overlooking, that's as good a bet as you'll find." - Paul Graham