In 2011, Ted Batycki co-founded Natural Choice Academy with a dream and a hope. The concept was simple—build the school that he and his wife would want for their own children.

Conscious, healthy, active, nurturing, safe. The Batycki’s thought, other parents must want the same things from a school, and so they sought to build that better way. NCA opened its doors on a Monday, and their first child was born on that Friday.

Natural Choice Academy’s organic mantra goes beyond food. Their learning environment is designed to foster emergent natural play, meaning, children are the leaders in their learning, they play in a natural environment with natural materials, and most importantly, they have fun.

Five years after its inception, NCA had hit 1.5 million in revenue and had 30 employees and 150 children relying on them, every single day. Ted and the team were obviously doing great, but they were also experiencing some growing pains such as long customer waitlists, and team and program management. Ted knew if he could do better by his team and the vision for NCA, he could do better by the children, and that’s what counts.

Starting with Organize Chaos

Ted had met Chris Ronzio through EO (Entrepreneurs’ Organization) and had heard about the Organize Chaos workshops. He decided that might be just what Natural Choice Academy needed—an organizational action plan to strategically map the planning and implementation of new ideas. And so he started the 3-day workshop.

On day one, Chris spent an entire day with Ted. The two talked through every aspect of Natural Choice Academy. From the founding purpose to the forward-looking vision, the ins and outs of day-to-day operations, and all those pain points that need attention. Basically, day one is spent uncovering the chaos.

The following day, Chris spent time interviewing each teacher 1 on 1 to understand what the business looks like from their point of view. How is the school running from the employees’ perspectives? What are their specific pain points? These are often different from organizational management, yet just as important to paint the full picture and chart the best path forward. On day three, it was Ted time again. Chris and Ted met for four hours discussing issues, ideas, and opportunities.

RESULTS

The Organize Chaos process dives first and foremost into ideas and to-dos more narrow in scope, such as app and software recommendations to more efficiently manage a specific process or problem. Like a check-list, we identify the specifics that can be easily taken care of off the bat to spark momentum and make room for the mental clarity you crave to move forward.

At the end of the 3-day workshop, Chris delivered a roadmap for Natural Choice Academy that took all of the scattered pieces and aligned them as cohesive solutions, easy to follow and simple to implement.

Ted says he felt “energized,” and “like a success,” because he had spent time figuring out the right way to do things. He would then go on to hire Organize Chaos for our implementation and accountability program, continuing to work together every other week for three months.