Know someone who needs this? Forward it. Did someone send this to you? Subscribe here
If someone asked you how a zipper works, you'd say you know.
But if they asked you to explain it — step by step, from first principles — could you?
Familiarity and understanding feel identical from the inside, until you have to prove otherwise.
This often happens to leaders, when asked to explain their model to new listeners.
These new listeners - whether they’re funders, your board, or a new team mate, haven't lived inside your model for multiple years. They don't share the context that makes everything feel obvious to you.
Sometimes your explanation comes easily, and the room follows along.
And sometimes you discover something else: That the thing you've been doing and the story you've been telling about it don't quite connect.
For example:
An organization started as a job placement program — connecting unemployed adults to entry-level roles. Over time, they noticed that placements weren't sticking. People were getting jobs but losing them within six months. So they added financial coaching, then mental health support, then employer relations work. The program morphed into a workforce development ecosystem.
But the theory of change still reads: "we connect unemployed adults to jobs." And when a new board member asks why the mental health component is in scope, there's no clean answer. Not because the decision was wrong — it was probably right — but because the logic was never updated to explain why all these pieces belong together.
If you want to explain how a zipper works before your next high-stakes conversation, schedule a free consultation and we can strategize together.
