06: Stop optimizing your business. Start growing your organism (#3 Identity)

The Third Space Educational Series

For years, I worked in a team that looked fine on paper but felt soulless on in inside.

We had talented people. Good relationships. Work got done. Requests got handled. From the outside, we were functional. But there was no spark. No aliveness. No sense that what we were building actually mattered.

I felt it but couldn’t name it. Something fundamental was missing. Not strategy. Not execution. Not even effort.

It was identity.

In this article, I’ll show you why identity is the third dimension of team chemistry’s “Elements” category, what makes it work, and why viewing your business as a living organism is essential for scale.

What Changes When Identity Is Present

A couple of years ago I worked with a co-founder of a branding company. They’d been in business for a few years and grew to a handful of people.

The difference hit me immediately.

Every conversation felt truly alive. There was genuine excitement. A sense of possibility. And what struck me most was that all their activities were connected to a deeper sense of purpose and meaning.

Although they worked in branding, they essentially wanted to help their customers walk in purpose. They were clear on not only what they were doing, but the bigger game they wanted to play - the actual driver of it all.

And you could see it everywhere: how they interacted with me, with their people, with their customers. It all felt coherent. Their identity wasn’t just written down somewhere. It was alive in every decision, every conversation, every project they chose.

That’s when I realized what my old team had been missing, and why so many scaling companies lose their magic.

The Thing Everyone Knows (But Doesn’t Actually Do)

Simon Sinek told us to “Start With Why” years ago. Every founder knows they need purpose, vision, and values. You’ve probably even articulated them at some point. Maybe you had a workshop. Created a document. Presented it to the team.

So why do so many scaling teams still feel functional but not alive?

Here’s what I’ve learned: it’s not about whether you have identity defined. It’s about two things most leaders miss entirely.

First, you need to shift how you think about your business itself.

Second, you need both clear articulation AND consistent activation.

Let me explain...

Your Business Isn’t Just a Machine

Most of us default to machine thinking without realizing it. Optimize the parts. Maximize efficiency. Control outcomes. Eliminate variation.

There’s nothing wrong with this. It’s useful for lots of things. But looking at your business only as a machine is limiting.

What if your business is also a living organism?

Not instead of a machine. Not either/or. Both/and.

An organism evolves. It responds to its environment. It has character that expresses itself through every interaction. The elements are interdependent and influence each other. It’s all human and relational, and the invisible web often shapes things more than the visible parts.

And here’s the thing about organisms: they need DNA. Clear genetic code that guides how the whole system expresses itself.

That’s what identity is. The DNA of your organizational organism.

When you’re a founder with five people, you and your company are basically the same thing. The business is an expression of your identity. Your values naturally infuse everything. Your vision gets communicated constantly through daily interaction.

But something happens as you scale to 25, 50, 100 people.

You can’t be everywhere anymore. You can’t personally transmit identity through proximity and repetition. This is where most founders hit the wall, trying to scale themselves instead of making identity explicit enough that the organism can express what you stand for even when you’re not there.

The Two Things That Actually Matter

Once you start thinking about your company as an organism that needs clear DNA, you realize identity requires two things:

Articulation AND Activation.

Both are essential. Neither is sufficient alone.

Articulation: Making It Clear

Articulation isn’t optional. You need identity defined clearly enough to guide behavior.

The components are well-known:

• Purpose answers: Why do we exist? What change are we here to create?

• Vision answers: Where are we going? What are we building together?

• Values answer: How do we want to be with each other? What principles guide us?

But here’s what matters: they need to be specific enough to actually guide choices.

Good articulation means people can remember your purpose, vision, and values without looking at a document. The language is specific enough to guide choices, not so broad it could apply to any company. Values describe behaviors you actually expect, not virtues you wish you had.

Without clear articulation, the organism doesn’t know what it is. People create their own interpretations. The character you want dilutes as you scale because there’s no coherent DNA to replicate.

In my old team, we had none of this. No one could name our purpose. Vision was vague. Values were implicit, built on hope rather than shared agreement.

Every request felt equally important because we had no boundary to bounce things off. We evaluated everything. We made decisions based on the emotion of the day, not alignment with something larger.

The organism was confused. Fragmented. Sometimes even fighting itself.

Activation: Making It Alive

But here’s the thing I’ve learned working with founders and creative teams:

Articulation alone changes nothing.

I worked with a creative agency who spent real time getting clear on their identity. Deep reflection. Meaningful conversations. Genuine clarity about what they were building and why.

Then a misaligned project appeared. Good money. Interesting client. But clearly outside their stated identity - the kind of work that would pull them away from where they said they wanted to go.

They took it anyway.

Fear of saying no. Fear that maybe their identity wasn’t “realistic” when business pressure showed up. Fear of leaving money on the table.

Today, they’re still in chaos. Still reacting to whatever appears. Still struggling with the same patterns they hoped clarity would solve.

This is what I call the activation gap.

Activation means your articulated identity guides actual behavior, especially when doing so costs something. When a request conflicts with your purpose, the organism rejects it. When an opportunity doesn’t serve your vision, the organism says no. When conflict tests your values, the organism holds to its principles.

When identity is both articulated clearly AND activated consistently, everything shifts. People understand why their work matters and engagement emerges naturally from meaning. The best talent stays because identity is real, not hypocritical. Most importantly, people can make aligned decisions without you in the room. The organism’s DNA is doing its job.

That’s what makes you the bottleneck. Not lack of delegation skills. Not being a control freak. Simply that the organism doesn’t have clear enough DNA to function without you.

How to Actually Do This

When I work with scaling teams on identity, here’s what I focus on:

1. Articulate clearly

Keep purpose, vision, and values short enough that people can remember them. Make them specific enough to guide actual choices. Test them: can someone use these to make a decision without asking you?

2. Activate consistently

Use identity to make actual decisions, especially hard ones where it costs something. Point out when choices align with identity. Call out when behavior conflicts with stated values. Tell stories about times when living your identity led to good outcomes.

3. Evolve as the organism grows

Identity isn’t static, it can evolve while maintaining core character. Review it periodically as the company matures. Let it get more nuanced, but don’t let it get vague. Keep asking: does this still guide behavior, or has it become decoration?

The goal is simple: define the DNA clearly enough that the organism can express what you stand for without you controlling every interaction.

The Real Test

That five-person startup I mentioned? Their activated identity meant they could say no to misaligned opportunities without agonizing. New people quickly understood “how we do things here.” The founder wasn’t the bottleneck. The DNA was doing its job.

When you get both articulation and activation right, your company stops being something you have to hold together through force of will. It becomes something that holds itself together through shared identity.

That’s when work becomes alive.

Warmly,

Marc

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Ready to Dive Deeper?

1. Want to see where chemistry flows (and where it’s blocked) in your team? The Team Chemistry Map™ reveals your current state across all nine dimensions in 5 minutes. Discover your team’s chemistry profile and identify your highest-leverage opportunities for growth. [Take the Team Chemistry Map →]

2. Curious about the larger framework? Read The Third Space™ Manifesto to understand how performance and relationships integrate into something more powerful than the sum of their parts - and how you can access this breakthrough dimension consistently. [Read the Manifesto →]