About Scott

I’m Scott McDowell. Nice to meet you.

I’ve spent the last decade working with businesses on all kinds of things but especially issues related to business growth. I’ve worked with a variety of businesses on hiring, leadership and organization development as a consultant, facilitator and coach.

I’m something of an expert on designing organizations. You can find my writing on creativity and teams for places like The 99% (which won a Webby for Best Culture Blog in 2011), Accidental Creative, Amy Hoy’s Unicornfree and Carol Roth’s Business Unplugged. I was recently quoted as an expert in Inc. for a story on hiring for creativity. I’ll be presenting my talk “Organization Design is for Lovers” at South by Southwest Interactive in March 2012 as part of Future15, SXSW’s TED-like speaker track.

I’ve recruited gobs of people for giant corporations, start-ups, and small businesses. I developed my own process for hiring and I’ve taught it to other people. I know it works because I’ve used it.

Just as importantly, I’ve been in the thick of it, helping to run a successful boutique management consulting firm that grew and shrunk over the years. I know what you’re going through.

This site exists to share the things I’ve learned. My hunch is that people like you are out there and could use the information: founders, growth-oriented business owners, and entrepreneurs.

I’m a graduate of the International Coach Academy and have studied at the Gestalt Institute in Cleveland. I say this not to boast about my fancy credentials, but to help explain how the coaching philosophy informs my work. I don’t pretend that I have all the answers. I see my job as asking the right questions, and providing a framework and a process that you can use over and over again to solve problems.

About My Watch

When I was in high school I traveled through Russia on a cultural exchange program. This was in 1991 not too long after the fall of communism, so it was really weird place searching for an identity. For instance, people didn’t obey signs because they thought that was “freedom.” Anyway, I bought a watch on the black market. It probably cost me 4 cents and I still wear it even though it doesn’t tick.

On the watch it says Perestroika in Russian. I don’t know if you’re up on your communist history, but Perestroika was the name of a batch of Mikhail Gorbachev’s programs that eventually led the the dissolution of the USSR. He started to insert free market thinking into this very old socialist structure and people say that was the spark that led to the fire, the fall of the Berlin wall, the whole banana.

I love the watch because it’s a reminder of what it felt like to begin to understand the depth of the world. And I love the watch because it symbolizes the spark that led to monumental historical change. The nudge. The tipping point. (And also, it’s a branded political movement! It’s a watch with a logo but instead of saying “Just Do It” or Swatch or Mickey Mouse, it says Perestroika!)

Maybe I can’t change “small business” singlehandedly, but can I be the nudge?

Can I start something that starts something? As audacious as it sounds, I think I can.

About Me

First things first:

• I believe in work, but I believe in creating livelihoods more.
• I believe that work should connect people in a bundle of meaningful ways, not just an economic or a practical way.
• I believe businesses are an essential piece of a healthy community.
• I believe businesses have the power and the responsibility to give as much (or more) than they receive.
• I believe in independence (being free to act and free from oppression).
• I believe in interdependence (working together as part of an integrated network).
• I believe in family, and that families are stronger when parents have time and flexibility.
• I believe in organic growth rather than aggressive growth.
• I believe we can make our own economies to live in (we’ve forgotten).
• I believe in having enough but not hoarding.
• I believe in living well, reducing stress, and mindfulness.
• I believe in helping individuals be their best selves; a good leader provides access and a roadmap.
• I believe corporations are like bad food: they feed the system but scarcely provide lasting sustenance.

What is The Weird Middle?

It’s the level of business growth after start-up and before maturity. The Weird Middle is a direct consquence of the revolutionary explosion of handmade business culture of the last several years.