"Who" Vs "How" - Stop Asking the Wrong Question

The “Who” and the “How” Are the Same Problem
 

Sam Walton’s Blind Spot
In Made in America, Sam Walton tells a story about the early Walmart days.
He was obsessed with stores — visiting them constantly, taking notes, measuring prices, comparing displays.

He’d drive thousands of miles a year, popping in unannounced to check shelves, signage, and how fast cashiers moved. He was relentless about how the business ran.

One day, after stopping by a struggling store, a young manager pulled him aside and said,
“Mr. Walton, I can’t keep up. Every time we think we’re doing it right, the system changes again.”

Sam realized something: he’d built incredible systems, but he hadn’t built enough leaders who could carry those systems forward.
The how was solid — the who wasn’t ready for it.

Execution Has Two Sides

Most business owners treat the who and the how like separate problems.
They’re not. They’re the same problem seen from two angles.

You can have the best systems in the world, but if the wrong people are running them, they’ll collapse under confusion or apathy.
And you can have great people, but if your systems are a mess, they’ll burn out fixing the same problems over and over.

The who determines the strength of your culture.
The how determines the strength of your execution.
You can’t build a winning operation without both.

Mismatched Systems Kill Momentum

When the who and the how are out of sync, your business feels harder than it should.

You start to see the symptoms:

Great employees leaving because they’re buried in broken processes.
Systems that worked six months ago suddenly collapsing under new staff.
You — the owner — getting dragged back into day-to-day chaos because nothing sticks.
It’s not that your people aren’t capable or your systems aren’t smart enough.
It’s that they were never built for each other.

When people and process align, execution feels natural.
When they don’t, it feels like a constant uphill push.

Before a making a fix, check to see the fit first.

Next time something keeps breaking — instead of asking, “What’s wrong with this person?” or “What’s wrong with this system?” — ask:
“Do the person and the process actually fit each other?”

Here’s how:

Pick one recurring breakdown — a slow quote process, a sloppy handoff, or a missed follow-up.
Write down who owns it and how they’re doing it.
Ask whether the process matches their strengths.
If your top performer keeps bending the system to make it work, you probably need a better system.
If your system works for everyone except one person, you probably need a better fit.

Great leaders don’t just build systems. They design fit.

Sam Walton's Fix

When Sam Walton realized his “how” had outgrown his “who,” he didn’t double down on control.
He doubled down on leadership.He started spending as much time developing store managers as he did developing systems.
He held Saturday morning meetings, brought managers together to swap ideas, and built an environment where good people could run great systems — not just follow orders.

That’s what made Walmart unstoppable.
Not the technology. Not the pricing.
The alignment between the people and the process.

Your business is no different.
If execution feels heavy, you don’t need more effort — you need more fit.

Because the who and the how aren’t separate.
They’re two sides of the same decision:
How will we win — and who can carry that forward?

 
When your people and your process work together, growth doesn’t feel forced — it feels inevitable