There can only be one winner in the game of tug of war. To organizations, it’s either freedom or unity; there can only be one winner.
The belief that you can only encourage freedom or allow unity is a false tradeoff. This is most often seen as freedom that is ignored in favor of unity (by way of control through compliance).
There is a better way! Freedom and unity aren’t opposing forces. When embraced together, they become the conditions your organization needs to thrive.
The False Tradeoff
When you look at the Rubin Vase, what do you see?
After time and careful examination, you will most likely begin to see that two images coexist. A Vase. Two people looking at each other.
But, these two images are doing more than coexisting, in fact, you would not be able to have one without the other in this piece. The people’s faces form the vase’s outline and vice versa. They need each other and together create a two-dimensional form that informed important understanding on visual perception and psychology for us today.
The tension that exists between freedom and unity is false and must be broken in order for organizations to truly thrive.
How can this be broken?
The Modular Leadership System
The principle of modularity allows a system to be organized into components (“modules”) that work well as a united whole but can be designed, developed, and improved independently.
Ever wonder how your smartphones, tablets, and computers pack over 10 billion transistors into a small, compact device?
The answer is modularity.
Processors are built by separate design teams, each working independently on their piece of the puzzle — connected by clearly defined interfaces that ensure everything clicks together perfectly. The same principle extends to software. Your operating system, your apps, the tools you use daily, are not only composed of modules, but most are built by entirely different people and organizations who never coordinated directly. They just all agreed on the rules.
Organizations work the same way. Teams are the modules — and leadership defines the interfaces. The design rules that shape how work is structured, how information flows, and how authority is exercised must be intentionally built to support and sustain that work. When those interfaces break down, the system breaks down. Modular leadership is the practice of designing them intentionally — so the whole organization can adapt and scale without depending on any single person to hold it together.
Modularity creates the space for freedom and unity to exist.
The Principles of Modularity
There are 3 elements of modularity: (1) Framework for Action, (2) Visible Information, and (3) Power Dynamics.
- Framework for Action
- Prioritizes initiative and personal agency and positions teams as the fundamental unit of the organization.
- Visible Information
- Ensuring that the information necessary to unify the work of the organization is effectively known, understood, valued, and used by everyone.
- Power Dynamics
- Built on the idea that there is great potential in everyone, and the goal of the system is to activate that potential power wherever it can be found.
These three principles of modularity enable a system to operate independently (freedom) and function as a whole (unity).
The Freedom and Unity Architecture in Real Life
Years ago, I experienced the freedom and unity false tradeoff while running a university-led summer sports camp. These sports camps welcomed thousands of youth each week to participate in a number of specialized sports, with training led by student athletes at the university. I was tasked with managing the roughly 300 sports camp counselors — the individuals who oversaw the youth when they were not in their training.
A task like this felt large, because it was. Although I wasn’t aware of the terms of freedom and unity at the time, looking back now I realize how much I was living in a case study of this concept.
It didn’t take very long before realizing that trying to control these counselors, who were only a few years younger than me, was not going to work.
So I stopped trying to manage 300 people and started building something they could manage themselves. I created structures — clear expectations, daily rhythms, communication channels, peer accountability — that gave counselors the freedom to lead in their own way while keeping everyone moving toward the same thing: a great experience for the kids. The architecture was doing the leading, and I was just tending to it.
Leading Through enables leadership to permeate by shaping an architecture that breaks this false tension—where freedom infuses people and teams with energy and unity channels and integrates that energy toward shared purpose.
