What's Your Marketing Operating System?
I just started listening to the audiobook Brave New Work by Aaron Dignan and there's one example in it that I just can't shake.
It's about intersections.
Specifically, the difference between traffic lights and traffic circles (or roundabouts).
On the surface, they solve the same problem: how do we get a bunch of humans, in a bunch of cars, through the same point without crashing into each other?
But underneath, they're built on completely opposite assumptions about people.
A different operating system.
A traffic light assumes the humans participating be trusted to make a good decision about when to go and when to stop. It assumes that, left to your own devices, you'll do the wrong thing. So it takes the decision away from you entirely. Red = stop. Green = go. No thinking required. No collaboration either.
A traffic circle assumes the opposite. It assumes you're paying attention. That you can read the situation, yield when you need to, go when it's safe, and figure it out with the other humans in the intersection.
In North America, the large majority of intersections are traffic lights. Which might lead you to believe that taking the decision away from the people is SAFER.
But the data actually shows the opposite. Traffic circles actually work better. Greater traffic flow. Fewer accidents (both minor and major). And they're half the cost to install, plus cheaper to maintain.
Hmmm.
So, why do so many intersections end up with a traffic light?
Because traffic lights maintain the illusion of certainty and control. Someone OUTSIDE the system controls the flow. Someone OUTSIDE the system has created the ONE WAY this can work for everyone.
So, even though the data shows that's not true, it fits the human desire for certainty and control better and it stays.
Does that sound like a "marketing funnel" to anyone else?
Let's explore.
The Marketing OS Nobody Talks About
Every marketing team has an operating system. Most of us just don't call it that.
It's the invisible layer underneath the campaigns and the calendars and the content. It's the assumptions about how decisions get made. Who can post. Who needs approval. What requires a meeting. What counts as "on brand". What you're allowed to test without asking.
And in most organizations, that operating system was built on the traffic light assumption.
People can't be trusted to make their own decisions.
I mean, have you seen a lot of the Social Media Policies out there?
I remember a friend of mine telling me that they weren't allowed to use social media at work AND they were also expected to like and share the company content on social media outside of work on their own time.
Yeah, you're right. That didn't work 🤣
Let's look at this from a frounder's point of view. As we grow, I know I can't always make the decision. It's why I hire people. So, I put into policy the decision I would make so I can ensure we all make the same decision.
Traffic Lights.
These traffic lights show up as:
Approval chains that take longer to go through than writing the content
Brand guidelines so tight no one says anything
Editorial calendars locked a month out, eliminating real-time market insights
Sales and marketing interactions that turn humans into robots (hey there automation)
Each of these started as a reasonable idea. Someone, somewhere, was nervous about what would happen if a marketer just…used their own judgment. So they installed a traffic light.
And then another one.
And then another one.
Until eventually you've got an entire system designed to prevent people from thinking—and you wonder why the marketing feels disconnected from the brand.
No flow. High expenses. And probably some fatalities along the way...yes, that COULD have been customers.
Why We Keep Installing Traffic Lights
Here's the thing about traffic lights: they feel safe.
Safer than trusting someone who isn't me. Safer than not knowing. Safer than letting your social media coordinator reply to a LinkedIn comment without three people reviewing it first.
But safe-feeling and actually-safe aren't the same thing.
Marketing teams running on traffic-light systems tend to produce:
Content that's technically "on brand" but says nothing (and means nothing)
Campaigns that took six months to launch and feel two years old (and get no results)
Messages so risk-averse that they don't risk being interesting (so no one notices)
Teams of smart people who've learned to stop offering ideas (I hate this the most)
That's not safe. That's just slow.
And it's expensive in a way the spreadsheet doesn't show—because the real cost is the judgment you're never developing in your people, and the trust you're never building with your audience.
A traffic light says: we don't trust you to read the room.
And your team? They start believing it.
And the audience? They can feel it.
Who does that help?
Moving Towards "Traffic Circle" Marketing
A traffic circle doesn't mean chaos. And it doesn't mean "everyone do whatever you want."
A traffic circle has rules. They're just fewer, and they assume competence.
In a traffic circle, you don't need to be told when to go. You need to know:
Where you're trying to get to
Who has the right of way
When it's your turn to yield
That's it. Everything else is judgment.
And judgment gets better the more you practice.
Translated into marketing, a traffic-circle OS looks like:
A clear purpose, so everyone knows where they're heading
Principles instead of rules ("sound like a human" beats a 40-page style guide every time)
Decision rights pushed down to the people closest to the human experience
Permission to experiment without a permission slip
A debrief culture, so when something doesn't work, we learn (instead of installing another traffic light)
And while it might seem like you're going around in a circle instead of straight, there's a flow. And flow is what turns into momentum.
The team stops asking, "Am I allowed to do this?"
And they start asking, "Does this serve the people we're here for?"
It's an iterative question. That has ever-evolving conditions.
A traffic-circle OS builds in the conditions for change. People can read the intersection and adjust. They can try something different on a Tuesday without waiting for next quarter's planning meeting. They can respond to what's actually happening in the market instead of what the plan said would happen six months ago.
Now that's what adaptability actually looks like.
The Quiet Truth About Trust
Here's what Brave New Work gets at that I think is so important for marketers:
The traffic-light system isn't really about safety. It's about control. And control feels good to the people doing the controlling—right up until they realize they've controlled all the life out of the work.
If you don't trust your marketing team (or any of your teams) to make decisions, one of two things is true:
You hired the wrong people.
You hired the right people and you haven't given them the room to be right.
How to address #1 is pretty simple. #2 is a little more complocated (thanks human mindsets).
But neither of those problems gets solved by adding another approval step; another traffic light.
The bravest thing a marketing leader (or founder) can do is take a traffic light out. Just one. And see what happens when the people in the intersection get to use their own judgment.
You just might find they have a capacity that you didn't realize you needed.
Hello innovation and growth 💞
Assessing Your Marketing OS
Here's a challenge for this week: take a look at your own marketing operating system. Not the strategy. The system. And ask:
Where have we installed traffic lights that don't need to be there?
Whay do we feel like this one person is the only one who can approve this?
What "rule" is actually just a preference someone had back in 2019?
Where am I telling my team I trust them, while building systems that say I don't?
If we replaced this approval with a principle, what would the principle be?
After all, no two people are exactly the same.
We wouldn't say things the same. We might not do things exactly the same.
But that was never what a consistent brand experience was about anyway.
It's about real humans, helping real humans, in an authentically helpful manner.
Your people have the capacity to do that.
IF...
They aren't constantly being stopped by traffic lights.
You don't have to rip the whole system out tomorrow.
Just find ONE. One traffic light. And ask if it's actually getting you there faster, safer, and in the most cost effective manner.
And if it's not?
Permission to let it go ✨
P.S. If you want to get into the conversation with peeps who are interested in marketing FLOW and not traffic lights, book a call with one of the Authentic Marketing Fellows (or me)!
