Welcome to Running Room
If you’ve found your way here, welcome. Running Room is where I share what I’ve learned (and what I’m still learning) about operations, leadership, and helping small businesses run better — not just harder.
The name? It’s simple: I believe businesses run better when they have room — room to focus, room to grow, and room to breathe.
You’ll find case studies, short essays, and hands-on reflections drawn from 30+ years in operations, service & sales — from corporate real estate to building a small working farm in North Carolina. Most of what I write here comes from being in the thick of it.
If you’re building a business, leading a team, or just trying to make things work better — I hope this space gives you a bit of room too.
Thanks for stopping by.
— Tom
If you’d like to see new posts as they’re released, the easiest way is to follow me on LinkedIn
Two egg yolks. Same look. Different story. A Field Notes reflection on leadership formation, engineered success, and why experience shows up when it matters most.
When finishing becomes the bottleneck, effort alone won’t fix it. This case study shows how disciplined observation, fast learning, and targeted changes increased finishing throughput by 11%. …without new equipment or headcount.
A Voice of the Customer case study showing how disciplined listening helped a legacy custom manufacturer refocus operations, delivery, and customer experience.
When a brush-pile fire met a Carolina downpour, neither wanted to lose. Hours later, a single kick brought it roaring back. Leadership isn’t always about adding more fuel; sometimes it’s just knowing where to make space for air. The Reignition Principle—nature’s reminder to breathe.
A simple tool reminded me how easily we confuse one thing for another—especially when it comes to names. From Bill Bill to Dale Carnegie, this one’s about the small courtesy that means the most: getting it right.
Each season reveals its own lessons. A 10-point buck survives not by speed or strength, but by restraint and rhythm—the same quiet discipline that sustains great work and lasting impact.
Sometimes the hardest part of change isn’t the cutting — it’s knowing where the pressure lies before you begin. A dead hickory on my farm reminded me that tension always tells a story: which way things want to go, what resists, and what’s ready to give. The trick isn’t to fight the lean, but to read it — and work with it.
What began as quiet feedback from a few project teams became the catalyst for a smarter support model at CBRE. This case study explores how risk reviews, embedded coaching, and client-facing innovation helped shift the way project delivery was supported—and how the right platform model can drive both internal and client success.
Scaling isn’t just about getting bigger. Many small businesses stall when growth outpaces systems, people, or cash. This post explores the common traps and introduces a white paper that shows how to build smarter — not just faster.
How do you earn credibility as a new leader?
Not with strategy decks or speeches—but by tackling the thing no one else will touch.
Here’s how one tough decision sparked a high-performance culture.
A small firm asked me to help them scale. What they really needed was to stop guessing and start listening — to their team, their clients, and their own instincts. This post reflects on what we changed, why it worked, and how “doing less” created the space they needed to grow.
Before tripling sales volume, CCBCC needed a smarter way to scale operations. This post shares what they did first — and how it paid off. Download the case study to learn more.
When business processes go unchecked, they morph into tangled messes of workarounds and inefficiency. The result? Chaos, burnout, and lost margin. In this post, we explore the “Bumble Ball Effect” and how to eliminate it with a few practical steps to restore order—and profit.