How to Manage the Unmanageable

I was a journeyman electrician on what might have been the most complex construction project I ever worked on.

A $1.8 billion airport terminal expansion. Twelve new terminals. Two underground tunnels — one for people, one for utilities and luggage conveyor systems.

All of it had to tie into the existing Tom Bradley terminal at LAX. All of it had to work together.

And I positioned myself as one of the guys in charge of making that happen.

• Laying out the job
• Managing the crew
• Training the new guys
• Sitting in subcontractor meetings
• Acting as a de facto project manager

There’s no way I could have done any of that without understanding one principle: how to break things down.

Not just break them down.

Break them down both ways.

The Problem With Big

Most people look at something massive and they freeze.

A $1.8 billion project. Twelve terminals. Two tunnels. Luggage systems that have to integrate with existing infrastructure. New buildings that have to connect to old ones. Dozens of trades. Thousands of workers. Millions of decisions.

It’s too big. It’s incomprehensible. So they either don’t try, or they try and they get lost.

The problem is that they’re looking at it as one thing.

When you look at something as one thing, you can’t manage it. You can’t understand it. You can’t break it into actionable steps.

But if you break it down — really break it down — suddenly it becomes possible.

Breaking It Down Vertically

Vertical breakdown is simple.

You take something complex and you break it into smaller pieces.

Then you break those pieces into smaller pieces.

Then you keep going until you get to something you can actually do.

​Alex Hormozi uses the skill of “charisma” to explain how to do this.

But charisma isn’t one skill. It’s seven skills.

• When someone walks in the room, they greet everyone immediately.
• They use people’s names.
• They shake their hand and make eye contact.
• When someone’s talking, they make eye contact and nod.
• When they talk, they look at the other person and bounce back and forth.
• They ask questions about the other person.

That’s seven things.

Not one.

If someone says “be more charismatic,” you’re stuck.

You don’t know what that means. But if someone says “nod your head when someone’s talking and keep eye contact,” you can do that.

That’s actionable.

On the airport project, the same principle applied. You can’t manage “build a terminal.”

But you can manage “run electrical to the north wall of Terminal 3 on Tuesday.”

You can manage “coordinate with the plumbing crew on the luggage tunnel.”

You can manage “train the new crew on the conveyor system integration.”

Break it down vertically until you get to something you can actually do.

Breaking It Down Laterally

But vertical breakdown isn’t enough. You also have to understand how the pieces connect.

That’s lateral breakdown.

It’s seeing how one piece relates to another.

How the electrical system connects to the HVAC system.

How the luggage conveyor connects to the people tunnel.

How the new terminal connects to the existing infrastructure.

On a $1.8 billion project, this is everything.

You can’t just focus on your piece. You have to understand how your piece fits into the whole.

You have to see where the dependencies are. You have to know what happens if you’re late, or if something doesn’t work the way you planned.

I spent years learning how to see laterally. How to look at a system and understand not just what it does, but how it connects to everything else.

How a change in one place ripples through the whole project.

How the luggage holding area that we built — which wasn’t actively used because they only kicked in when the time between flights was too long to keep luggage in the terminals — still had to be integrated into the overall system because it was part of the infrastructure.

That’s lateral thinking.

It’s seeing the connections.

The Two Dimensions of Mastery

Here’s what most people don’t understand: you can’t master something complex without understanding both dimensions.

Vertical breakdown lets you make progress.

You break something down into manageable pieces and you execute on those pieces. You get things done.

But lateral understanding lets you make smart progress.

You understand how your progress on one piece affects everything else.

You see the dependencies.

You avoid the mistakes that come from optimizing one thing at the expense of everything else.

On the airport project, I had to do both.

I had to break down the electrical work into manageable daily tasks.

But I also had to understand how those tasks connected to the plumbing, the HVAC, the structural work, the luggage systems, the existing terminals.

If I’d only done vertical breakdown, I would have gotten the electrical done. But it might not have worked with the rest of the system efficiently or effectively.

If I’d only done lateral thinking, I would have understood the connections but never actually gotten anything done.

Both. Always both.

Why This Matters for Your Life

You’re probably not managing a $1.8 billion construction project.

But you’re managing something complex. A business. A team. A career. Your life.

And the same principle applies.

If you want to become more charismatic, don’t try to “be more charismatic.” Break it down.

Learn to greet people. Learn to use their names. Learn to make eye contact. Learn to nod when they’re talking. Learn to ask questions. Seven things. Do those seven things and people will describe you as charismatic.

If you want to build a business, don’t try to “build a business.” Break it down.

Figure out how much money you need to make every day. Figure out how many customers that requires. Figure out how many conversations that requires. Figure out what activity gets you those conversations. Do that activity every day. That’s vertical breakdown.

But also understand how your sales connect to your product. How your product connects to your customer service. How your customer service connects to your retention. How your retention connects to your revenue. That’s lateral thinking.

Break it down vertically so you can execute. Understand it laterally so you execute smart.

The Skill That Scales

Here’s the thing about this approach: it scales.

When I was managing a crew of five, I could hold the whole project in my head. I knew every connection. I knew every dependency.

When I was managing a crew of a dozen, I couldn’t.

So I had to break it down further. I had to create systems. I had to delegate.

I had to make sure that the people I delegated to understood both the vertical breakdown (their specific tasks) and the lateral connections (how their work fit into the whole).

The more skilled you become, the more you can bucket things back together.

A junior electrician needs to be told “run this wire from point A to point B.”

A senior electrician can be told “make sure the electrical system integrates with the HVAC and plumbing.”

They understand the breakdown. They understand the connections. So they can take a more general command and execute it effectively.

That’s mastery.

It’s the ability to break things down when you need to, and bucket them back together when you can.

The Real Work

Most people think the hard part is execution. Getting things done. Pushing through.

But the real hard part is the thinking. It’s breaking something complex down into manageable pieces. It’s understanding how those pieces connect. It’s seeing the dependencies and the risks before they become problems.

That’s the work that separates people who manage complex projects from people who get overwhelmed by them.

On the airport project, I spent more time thinking about how things connected than I spent actually doing the work.

I spent time understanding the system. Understanding the dependencies. Understanding what could go wrong and how to prevent it.

That thinking is what made the execution possible.

Start With One Thing

You don’t have to manage a $1.8 billion project to use this principle. Start with something smaller.

Pick something you want to get better at. Something that feels too big or too complex.

Break it down vertically. What are the smaller pieces? What are the even smaller pieces? Keep going until you get to something you can actually do.

Then break it down laterally. How do these pieces connect? What depends on what? What happens if one piece fails?

Then execute on the smallest piece. Do that. Then do the next one.

And as you get better, as you understand the system more deeply, you’ll be able to bucket more and more of those pieces together. You’ll be able to take on bigger challenges. You’ll be able to manage more complexity.

That’s how you go from being overwhelmed to being in control.

That’s how you manage the unmanageable.

⚔ The Dojo Drill

Today’s training:

The Future Self Drill

Ask:

Do that.

📚 Leader’s Library

Book I recommend this week:

​The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene​

Why?

Because you're either coming from a place of power or not...

🔥 Take the Warrior Self-Assessment Quiz

Want to know where you stand?

Take this week's 2-minute leadership assessment.

It will tell you your current belt level.

[Click Here for Free Self-Assessment Quiz]

P.S. Know a martial arts gym owner who’s stressed about money or student numbers?

Do them a favor: send them to The Leader's dōjō 武士道場, my free Skool where I help owners get more students and keep them longer with simple systems.

One forward from you could change their gym: The Leader's dōjō 武士道場​

Chuck