When Your Company Starts Drifting: How Organizational Instability Quietly Affects Your Discipline
What happens inside you when the structure around you shifts — and why it matters for your self-governance
This post is a bit different from what I typically write about.
When I started writing about discipline, I did it to become a better model for my kids. That was the entry point. Later it became a way to leave something for them to learn from. Eventually it turned into a way to help others who were facing similar questions.
I wrote about discipline because I wanted to learn how to govern myself. To act from my principles. To move from my values.
That led me to a deeper question.
Why was that important? Why not behave well in front of my kids and hope they absorbed what they needed?
Life does not work that way.
My work on discipline began with observing myself. I paid attention to attention itself.
To the effort of returning after interruptions.
To the way behavior shifted when I acted with intention instead of impulse.
After writing consistently for more than a year, I started noticing movements that appeared outside the self. Patterns repeated across groups of different sizes. The behavior of one person affected the environment, and the environment shaped the behavior of everyone inside it. Discipline still mattered, but it became clear that it lived inside something larger.
We move inside organizations, and when an organization drifts, the people inside it feel the consequences. Drift is any shift in the structure that makes responsibilities harder to carry and direction harder to hold. Drift often begins silently, in small delays, unclear priorities, or rising friction that no one can trace to a single cause. Coherence begins to fade, and the self-governance of its members becomes harder to maintain.
Today I want to share some of the directions my work is taking, so the transition does not catch you by surprise.
A scenario that reveals how this happens
Let’s consider the following scenario.
John built a business on his own. He handled operations and made decisions. As the workload grew, he hired a co-founder named Bob. On paper they looked aligned. They spoke about the same plans, aimed at the same outcomes, and moved with the same level of urgency.
Bob began taking on projects and leaving them unfinished.
Messages stayed unanswered.
Deadlines passed without updates.
New plans appeared while earlier work remained unresolved.
John filled the gaps.
At first occasionally.
Then consistently.
He carried his tasks and Bob’s tasks.
The team slowed.
Decisions stalled.
The structure grew uncertain.
Bob eventually stopped showing up.
No explanation.
No transition.
John handled everything again.
Later he hired Otis.
Otis did not match John in ideas, but he handled his responsibilities.
He communicated clearly.
He closed assignments.
He stayed present when pressure increased.
The environment shifted.
Projects advanced.
Clients received updates.
The team moved without waiting for corrections.
Meetings produced results.
Bob introduced instability.
Otis introduced steadiness.
The company changed with them.
How small patterns scale into larger environments
What happened inside John’s company is not limited to one business. Groups of every size respond in similar ways. One person shifts their behavior, and the structure absorbs that shift. Another person stabilizes their part, and the structure settles. The environment changes shape based on the conduct of the people inside it.
This movement appears in teams, partnerships, departments, and any setting where people depend on one another. It mirrors what happens inside an individual when attention moves away from what matters and needs to return. Only now it plays out across a group instead of within a single mind.
Once I began seeing this, the connection became clearer. The principles that help one person stay aligned also influence how a group maintains its direction. The pattern stays the same even when the scale changes. Self-governance does not stop at the individual. It expands outward.
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Why does this matter
If you’ve felt misaligned at work or found yourself carrying responsibilities you did not create, it may have come from shifts in the environment rather than anything personal.
Drift spreads quietly.
Tasks slow down.
Priorities shift without explanation.
Roles stretch.
Uncertainty rises.
Pressure grows even when your behavior stays the same.
These movements affect clarity, energy, and the ability to stay self-governed. Many people interpret these signals as a lack of discipline, but when your behavior holds steady while the bar keeps moving or psychological safety fades, the weight usually comes from the structure around you.
When you can recognize this, you stop carrying work that isn’t yours.
Where my work goes from here
Many of you have shared moments of misalignment at work, rising demands, unclear roles, and the feeling of carrying weight that isn’t yours. These experiences are real, and the forces behind them often reach beyond personal habits.
My thinking has been moving in that direction.
Not away from self-governance, but toward a wider understanding of what surrounds it.
Self-governance remains the center of Self Disciplined. It’s the foundation of every reflection I write and the reason this space exists. Individuals are the stability point of any system. When a person strengthens their ability to return, every group they belong to benefits from it.
At the same time, many of the struggles you describe live at a broader scale: teams, workplaces, partnerships, and institutions. These movements shape discipline even when you stay consistent. They influence clarity, energy, and alignment.
I want to explore these larger dynamics too.
But they need their own space.
So I’m working on a place where those ideas can live: reflections about drift in groups, coherence inside organizations, and how responsibility shifts affect the people within a system. They won’t take over Self Disciplined. They’ll grow alongside it.
For now, everything stays as it is. I want to plan this expansion with care so it remains coherent and doesn’t dilute the work we do here. When I’m ready to open the new branch, I’ll share that with you before anything shifts.
As this develops, you may see adjustments in cadence here. Not because the work matters less, but because I want each piece to have the space it needs. The paid companions also depend on this rhythm, so I need to shape things in a way that supports both sides without compromising either one.
Self Disciplined will stay rooted in the individual — your direction, your return, your alignment.
The broader reflections will develop in parallel, not in place of this.
So stay tuned, because something meaningful is forming 😁.
What to take from here
Drift is not failure. Drift is data.
It appears in companies, teams, governments, and institutions of every kind. It shows where the environment has shifted and how people inside it are absorbing that change.
You can only hold your direction when you can see how the environment is moving around you. That awareness begins with noticing drift.
In our next paid companion, we will train how to respond when drift happens at work.
If these dynamics are affecting you, remember:
It isn’t always about effort or intention.
Sometimes it’s the structure shifting beneath your feet.
Have a wonderful week!
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