At ten people, everyone does everything.
At fifty, roles diverge.
Some people spend their days making things — code, campaigns, content, designs.
Others spend their days managing — planning, coordinating, aligning, reporting.
Both are essential, but their time, focus, and energy operate on completely different rhythms.
When a company grows without recognising this split, calendars become battlegrounds.
Deep work collapses into shallow meetings.
And productivity — the true engine of growth — stalls.
The most effective scale-ups design systems where managers and makers can each thrive without stepping on each other’s time.
At a Glance
Managers – Orchestrate alignment, context, and people.
Makers – Build products, systems, and creative output.
Recommended Tool: Org Design Playbook
1. The invisible tension in growing teams
Paul Graham famously wrote about the “maker’s schedule” and the “manager’s schedule.”
The idea is simple — but transformative.
- Makers work in long, uninterrupted blocks. One meeting can derail an entire afternoon.
- Managers work in short, structured intervals. Their days are designed around communication and decision flow.
At small scale, these two rhythms overlap naturally.
At scale, they collide — constantly.
Every one-hour meeting that feels essential to a manager can feel like sabotage to a maker.
Founders often feel both tensions simultaneously — needing to coordinate while craving space to create.
The challenge isn’t choosing one rhythm — it’s designing a company that respects both.
2. Makers: deep work as leverage
The philosophy
Makers are the ones who turn ideas into output.
Their work compounds through focus, iteration, and flow.
Great engineers, designers, and writers don’t just produce deliverables — they solve hard problems that define the company’s edge.
Maker work characteristics
- Requires long stretches of uninterrupted focus.
- Progress is non-linear — breakthroughs come suddenly.
- Creativity suffers under frequent context switching.
- Quality often matters more than quantity.
Common friction points
- Back-to-back meetings destroy momentum.
- Poorly defined priorities create thrash.
- Micro-management drains motivation.
The best thing leaders can do for makers is protect time, not allocate it.
See: Execution Rhythm Playbook
3. Managers: alignment as multiplier
The philosophy
Managers are force multipliers.
They don’t create output directly — they create conditions for output.
Their role is to align teams, remove obstacles, and ensure information flows effectively.
In scaling companies, this orchestration becomes vital.
Manager work characteristics
- Highly reactive and dynamic.
- Decision-heavy and communication-driven.
- Depends on timely context rather than flow.
- Optimised for coordination, not concentration.
Common friction points
- Lack of real-time information from makers.
- Resistance to process or accountability frameworks.
- Feeling excluded from “deep work” culture.
Good managers build clarity systems that let others work independently — without creating dependency.
4. The cost of ignoring the divide
When companies don’t recognise the different rhythms of managers and makers, three things happen:
-
Calendars explode.
Meetings multiply without coordination, breaking flow for everyone. -
Morale drops.
Makers feel over-managed; managers feel under-informed. -
Velocity declines.
Execution slows, even when everyone is working harder.
This is not a talent problem.
It’s a design problem.
5. Designing a dual-rhythm organisation
The solution is not to choose one rhythm but to orchestrate both.
Here’s how:
| Principle | Implementation |
|---|---|
| Separate meeting rhythms | Designate meeting-heavy days (Tues/Thurs) and focus days (Mon/Wed). |
| Protect maker blocks | 3–4 hour blocks of no meetings before noon for all creative roles. |
| Shared visibility | Async updates via Notion or Loom reduce synchronous status meetings. |
| Manager prep time | Ensure managers have time to think, not just react. |
| Quarterly planning alignment | Tie maker work to manager outcomes through clear OKRs. |
This isn’t about productivity hacks — it’s about designing human systems that respect cognitive energy.
6. Leadership’s role: protecting both energies
As a founder or exec, you must act as translator between the two time economies.
- To managers: “Your job is to shield makers from chaos.”
- To makers: “Your job is to communicate enough to prevent chaos.”
When each group understands the other’s rhythm, friction turns into flow.
A well-run organisation feels like a jazz ensemble — structure and improvisation coexisting beautifully.
7. Hybrid roles: when founders live both lives
Founders and senior leaders often straddle both worlds.
They need long stretches of focus and daily alignment loops.
The key is temporal separation — don’t try to do both in the same day.
Block maker time in the morning.
Schedule meetings and reviews in the afternoon.
Treat deep work as sacred — not optional.
Consistency beats intensity.
A two-hour uninterrupted block daily is worth more than a full day of reactive multitasking.
8. Scaling teams: when the divide widens
At 100 people, you’ll have distinct layers:
- Executives and managers operating on strategy cycles.
- Makers and specialists operating on sprint cycles.
This creates a temporal gap — leaders think in quarters, builders in weeks.
Bridging that gap requires systems like:
- OKRs for alignment.
- Weekly async updates.
- Quarterly cross-functional reviews.
Without these, the gap turns into frustration — “leadership doesn’t get it” vs “teams lack direction.”
Structure doesn’t slow you down — it synchronises your rhythms.
9. The danger of over-management
Many startups swing too far toward structure as they scale.
Suddenly, everything requires approval, process, and consensus.
The result?
The makers — your source of innovation — leave.
Over-management kills creativity.
Every layer between idea and execution reduces energy.
The best leaders apply minimal necessary structure — just enough to maintain clarity without crushing autonomy.
See: Leadership Development Playbook
10. Building manager–maker empathy
Practical steps:
- Pair empathy sessions: let managers shadow makers for a day and vice versa.
- Create dual calendars: visualise time spent on coordination vs creation.
- Celebrate both types of productivity: metrics for makers (output) and managers (enablement).
- Reward protection of flow: make focus a KPI for leaders.
When both groups understand that their success depends on each other, culture shifts from tension to trust.
11. Real-world examples
Basecamp: Known for deep work culture — four-day workweeks and no standing meetings. Makers rule the rhythm.
Spotify: Uses “tribes and squads,” allowing makers autonomy within shared alignment rituals. Hybrid rhythm.
Stripe: Balances rigorous planning with long focus windows for engineering. Execution feels deliberate, not rushed.
Each example shares one principle: respect the creative process without sacrificing strategic clarity.
12. Technology as rhythm enabler
Tools can either amplify or destroy rhythm.
- Async tools: Loom, Notion, Threads, Linear → enable clarity without sync.
- Scheduling tools: Clockwise, Reclaim → protect deep work blocks.
- Metrics dashboards: help managers see progress without asking for updates.
Adopt tools that reduce communication overhead, not increase it.
Technology should create silence, not noise.
13. Signs your rhythm is broken
- Meetings fill >50% of your week.
- Slack DMs replace planning documents.
- Makers regularly work late just to find focus.
- Managers spend more time following up than moving forward.
If any of these sound familiar, your company has fallen into the coordination trap — too much talk, not enough traction.
You don’t need more meetings.
You need better boundaries.
14. From conflict to complementarity
| Misalignment | Healthy Dynamic |
|---|---|
| “Managers waste time in meetings.” | “Managers clear blockers so makers don’t need to.” |
| “Makers don’t communicate enough.” | “Makers share context asynchronously.” |
| “We can’t move fast and stay aligned.” | “We move fast because we’re aligned.” |
The best organisations turn friction into flow by designing cultural bridges, not walls.
15. The founder’s checklist
Ask yourself:
- Does my team know which rhythm they’re in?
- Do meetings have clear purpose and cadence?
- Do makers have protected focus time weekly?
- Do managers have data visibility to reduce micromanagement?
- Do we celebrate both output and orchestration?
If you answer “no” to two or more, it’s time to realign your company’s operating rhythm.
16. The evolution path
| Stage | Rhythm Bias | Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Startup (0–20) | Makers dominate | Get things built |
| Scale-up (20–100) | Rhythms clash | Create structure |
| Growth (100–500) | Managers rise | Maintain velocity |
| Mature (500+) | Balance achieved | Institutionalise flow |
Every stage requires recalibration — too much of either rhythm at the wrong time creates imbalance.
17. Conclusion: designing for dual excellence
You don’t build great companies by choosing between making and managing.
You build them by understanding the energy each brings — and creating a structure that lets both excel.
Makers turn time into progress.
Managers turn alignment into acceleration.
Together, they create scale.
The founder’s real job isn’t to manage or make — it’s to design the rhythm that keeps both in harmony.
Recommended next step:
Use the Org Design Playbook to assess your company’s structure and identify where rhythm conflicts are slowing execution.
Ready to see where your business stands? Take the free Founder Diagnostic.