Business Motion: Keeping the Lanes in Sync

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how businesses move, not just how they grow, but how they move.

I have come to the conclusion that, on average, the best ones don’t sprint; they glide. They keep a rhythm between what they promise customers, how they deliver it, and how they improve over time. It’s rarely perfect, but it’s coordinated, more like a well-run swimming pool than a chaotic one. Every lane has its role, every swimmer their pace, and no one’s creating waves that throw others off course.

That’s the idea behind what I call the Five Lanes, a way to picture how strategy, systems, and people create flow inside an organisation:

Lane 1- Customer Journey – how value is experienced and felt.

Lane 2 - Customer-facing AI and Systems – insight and tools that help you anticipate need and personalise experience.

Lane 3 - Internal Processes – the structures and routines that keep your promises.

Lane 4 - Operational AI and Automation – the technology that improves how you work.

Lane 5 - People and Team – the human capacity that holds it all together.

Whilst each lane matters and has to have its own strategy, from marketing, sales, tech, through to operations, what really counts is how they move in sync.

And AI is skewing the pool more than ever.

This is a result of most of the current focus on AI sitting in Lane 4: the internal world of efficiency, automation, and cost reduction. It’s where quick returns are visible and controllable. Processes get faster, tasks are automated, and leaders and their CFO’s can measure productivity gains.

But the danger is when this lane starts to outpace the rest as the business becomes leaner inside but weaker when facing out. The customer journey (Lane 1) begins to suffer. Systems that make sense to the team because they make their lives easier often create friction for the people who actually buy from you. As a result, the customer experience quietly deteriorates, not through deliberate neglect but through imbalance.

Meanwhile, Lane 2, where AI could transform how customers are understood, supported, and served, often lags behind. It’s often less tangible, harder to quantify, and sometimes left for later, but it is in this lane where loyalty is built and relationships deepen. When it’s ignored, the whole pool loses flow.

Seeing the Business as One System

It is important to understand that whilst each lane has its own rhythm, they share the same water.

If you over-invest in internal optimisation, customers eventually leave the pool because the experience feels colder. If you pour energy into customer-facing systems without strengthening delivery, your people in Lane 5 will struggle to keep up, basically overwhelmed by promises they can’t fulfil, resulting in them either leaving or worse, drowning in the chaos.

This is what revenue and operations alignment (Rev/Ops) really looks like in practice: not sales, marketing, and delivery as silos, but as interdependent flows of value. Remember, strategy isn’t about picking a lane to lead for today but about keeping the water moving evenly.

Ownership sits in the middle of all this because it’s what keeps each lane connected.
When people understand the whole system, not just their part in it, they can see where value is created and where it leaks away. They own the overall experience and work as teams, not as solos competing for resources.

The Real Goal

AI has a role, but it needs human balance to keep it meaningful. Used well, it’s the enhanced connector between customers, processes and your people. It can help carry the business forward, reducing drag, revealing what really works and enhancing the customer journey and employee experience. Poorly used, it becomes a rip tide, pulling everything off course.

So, your goal should be alignment, where people, systems, and intelligence move in rhythm, creating flow rather than friction.

Because businesses rarely fail for lack of activity. They fail because one lane races ahead, another stalls, and no one notices until the pool starts to empty.

The takeaway is to keep the lanes in sync, so progress feels natural, and that’s when momentum stops being effort and starts to feel like flow.

That is when you have created real business motion.