The studio that grew past its founder
Marco Bellini · founder · Atelier Nove, a 40-person design studio · 6 months, with a workshop in month 3
50 min
weekly leadership meeting, down from 2 hours
3
leads with their own decisions written down
0
client calls Marco joins that his leads run
Client
Marco Bellini, founder
Company
Atelier Nove, design studio, 40 people
Length
6 months, workshop in month 3
Workshop
On the coast
The situation
Marco hired his first three leads in a year. Every decision still came back to him, and two of the leads disagreed about everything in private and nothing in meetings.
What we worked on
Your team
We agreed what the leadership team is for, and what it isn’t.
Clear roles
One page, written by the leads themselves, saying who decides what.
Conflict
The workshop on the coast, where the two leads settled the disagreement they’d been carrying since spring.
How it went
Months one and two
We started with Marco’s calendar. Two thirds of his week went on decisions his leads could make, so we listed them and handed them over one at a time. The first few wobbled, and Marco’s job was to not take them back.
The workshop
In month three the leadership team spent a day on a terrace near Positano. The two leads who disagreed in private said it out loud, with help, and left with one written decision about who owns project scoping.
By month six
The leads write their own one-page role, review it every quarter, and bring disagreements to the Monday meeting instead of to Marco’s inbox. Marco spends the time he got back on new clients.
What changed
The weekly leadership meeting went from 2 hours to 50 minutes.
Marco stopped joining client calls his leads were running.
The two leads now run project kick-offs together.
In Marco’s words
What they said on our first call, and what they said when we finished.
On our first call
“Every decision still comes back to me, and my leads only disagree in private.”
Six months later
“We stopped being five good people in a room and started being a team. It took one summer.”
Marco Bellini
Founder, Atelier Nove · 40-person design studio
