The method
Our methodology
Four rules, and one weekly meeting that carries them. The method is short, because most of it is discipline rather than technique.
- Four rules the work runs on
- One weekly meeting that carries them
- What we will not do
The rules
The four rules the work runs on
01 You set the target, not us.
You name the thing holding you back, and you pick the number that would tell you it moved.
- Early on we sized the place up and named the number ourselves
- We were wrong often enough to change how we sell
- Ten small wins now, instead of one big one over a year
02 We work the constraint, not the list.
Companies in trouble are rarely short on projects. Six good ones run at once and the place still will not move.
- The question is not which project matters most
- It is what all six are quietly working around
- One item, with a name and a date on it, in front of everybody
03 We price the problem in dollars first.
Once each problem has a figure, the order stops being an argument and starts being math.
- Every problem costed before any of them is picked
- The order falls out of the numbers
- It settles more fights than any amount of talking about alignment
04 We build what outlasts us.
Things getting better while we are in the building is not the test.
- The test is three months after the last invoice
- Holding a standard is a different job from fixing a problem
- Standards get repealed by the one reasonable exception, so we watch those
Give people eight to ten weeks to learn how you decide.
Week to week
What that looks like week to week
The rules only do anything if something in the calendar carries them. In practice that is one standing meeting a week, and four habits inside it.
01
Ranked by what it costs
The list is ranked by what each problem costs the company. Money is the tiebreaker, which is why the meeting ends.
02
One owner, inside the company
One person owns each item, and it’s somebody who works there, not us.
03
Counted by somebody else
The number is counted by somebody other than the owner, and it shows up on the same day every week whether or not anybody is worried.
04
Normal is a range
Thirty-nine one week and forty-one the next is weather. The week worth reacting to is the one that drops out of the range and stays out, and then we look at the process before the person.
Almost nobody plans for that part, and it’s where most owners quit and take the work back.
The five seats
What the owner is actually for
Handing work over goes wrong at the crossings, not inside the steps. Somebody does their part correctly, passes it on, and the next person receives something they cannot use. So the first question is which crossings a company has, and the second is which of them the owner is still standing in the middle of.
Five things stay with the owner. Everything else is a crossing that can be handed to somebody who works there.
Direction
What this company is for, and what it is going to stop doing.
Capital
Where the money goes before anybody has to ask.
Top seats
Who runs each part of the company. Also who is not going to.
Standard
What good looks like here, said once and then held when holding it costs something.
Accountability
The conversation nobody enjoys, had on time.
The test of whether that has actually happened is not a report. Go unreachable for two weeks and see what is waiting when you get back.
Case study
What the method did for one owner
Stabilizing a Home-Services Business to 4.8x Operating Profit
A growing home-services business had strong demand but was held back by cash pressure, inconsistent margins, and an owner stretched too thin. We led a structured turnaround that installed pricing discipline, sales processes, and a repeatable operating cadence, helping the business climb to roughly 4.8x operating profit over 24 months.
Roughly 4.8x operating profit over twenty-four months.
Origin
Where the method came from
None of this came out of a book. It came out of being wrong in front of clients and changing how we sold afterwards.
The target rule came from pricing our own promises and missing them. The constraint rule came out of a company where six good projects ran at once and none of them moved the place, because all six were working around one decision made months earlier. As for the dollar rule: leadership teams that had argued about priorities for a year settled it in an afternoon once somebody costed each one.
The fourth rule came last, and it's the one that changed the business. A company that improves while you're standing in it hasn't improved. It's been carried.
Limits
What we won't do
Two things, and both cost us money.
We won't help you win by setting somebody else up to lose. If the plan in the room is a quick gain that comes out of a customer, a supplier, or an employee who can't push back, we'll say so early.
And we'll tell you when what you need isn't what we sell. That's cost us work. It's never cost us a relationship.
Fit
Is LINX right for your business?
The method needs one thing from you that we can't supply: a willingness to have the order decided by what each problem costs rather than by who is arguing for it.
A strong fit
- The business has real demand and real potential
- Systems, financial controls, and leadership have not kept pace with the company
- Capacity, or the owner role itself, has not kept pace with the company
Not the right fit
- The owner wants a report but is unwilling to make changes
- The fundamental business economics do not work and there is no willingness to confront them
- The need is primarily legal, tax, clinical, or another specialty outside LINX's scope
You do not need another binder. You need better decisions, better systems, stronger ownership, and enough capacity to make the changes stick.
See who we usually work withStart the conversation
We don’t stop at advice. We build what outlasts us.
Bring us the thing you already know is wrong.
You name it. We'll cost it with you. Thirty minutes.
