How Much Information Do You Process Every Day? 🤔

What about your business?? 

Sticking with just you for now, It turns out it’s about 34GB of data. Only 1%—around 340MB—is consciously processed. That’s roughly five hours of video, equivalent to two Peter Jackson movies or three Adam Sandler comedies. Doesn’t seem like a lot across 24 hours, so how does the mind decide which 340 MB's is worthy of the spotlight? 

Well surely it just picks what's most relevant? or is it what's most interesting ? or what's most persistent in our field of view? even most immediately notable?

But how does it decide that? 

What if I told you it was all of the above rolled into one and all pre-ordained by pre-loaded filters.......

Evolution and Data Processing 🌱

Our brains are wired to extract specific data sets through our senses:

• See 👀
• Hear 👂
• Smell 👃
• Taste 👅
• Touch ✋
• EM Field sense (HeartMath)

This makes up that 34GB. The 99% of data not consciously seen isn’t ignored - it’s handled by the unconscious. For high speed response, like moments of danger or emotional charge, we often act on reflex. Even pre-cognitively, without conscious thought. Another chunk of our of our time is spent running autonomous (seemingly thoughtless) programs that aren't in reaction to the environment so much as in collusion with it, they are our habits and regimens like making coffee and the pre-drive car routine. Then we have a lower volume conscious component utilised for producing complex behaviour's and actions that are decided upon by active thought. 

In each example our minds are called upon to prioritise sense data to select a mode and run programs, ranging from the interactive-intentional to reflexive-repetitive behavioural patterns to deal with the problems of the day. 

Possibly this all sounds pretty straight forward or self evident? However how does the mind then know which 340Mb's is going to be most useful across that day? How does it parse out the 1% most relevant to us? 

Put simply: filtration....

To ensure we have the right information prioritised by our levels of awareness we need a system in place to extract the most salient data to inform each level of faculty and its subsequent pattern of response. In simple english we need an aim that creates coordination across the psyche!

The Business Connection 💼

In business, systems really do mirror life. Getting a business to do what it needs to, to live, to grow, and to leave a mark, we have to treat it like a human. First of that means providing it with a clear aim:

The basic goals of any concern: 

• Provide Value.
• Receive proportional compensation to grow and provide more value. 
• Support Your Teams ability to get better and better at delivery. So they also grow!
• Sustain, iterate, diversify.

In pursuit of these aims we encounter finite and infinite games, where is key achievements are defined within time horizons, fixed metrics or conditions for success. So we have to take time frames into account. 

This begs the question: what is progress and by when? How is success defined and under what terms or metrics within a given time frame?

• Survival: How long will the business last?
• Growth: How big can we get?
• Influence: What impact can we have?
• Transcendence: How will we change the world?

We must define the core focus of any business year on year as a baseline calibration and decide when we hit certain milestones to constrain our behaviours as we pursue them. You could say being entrepreneur is looking at the infinite options and selecting the few that will lead to the most relevant success. 

The Path Forward ✨

As we begin creating some systems of filtration, It's important to ask ourselves: What inspires you when you think about your business?

It's important to align your goals authentically across an organisation while remembering that lofty visions can always come later. In the initial instance it can make more sense to focus on what feels natural.

Let’s tie it all together and explore what you’re truly moving toward.

Developing the Psyche of your business.....

Our cognition is structured with variation among Neurotypes to support specific and varied functional prerogatives. This functional prerogative then ranks information creating the aforementioned filtering effect on 'salience.' 

i.e. what matters to us is unique to who we are. So we have a hierarchy applied to our perceptions. 

So to define coherently where you aim that spotlight of focus we call conscious thought requires you to understand the relationship between a business goal and your predisposition. This may only amend the language and tone of the goal but never underestimate the importance of such subtleties.

An example might be an extrovert is interested in who is heeding their outputs while an introvert is measuring, introspectively, the accumulative effect of others outputs on their energy, mind and body unconsciously (and sometimes consciously.) Different adaptive capability means different interpretation of the metrics. So an extrovert may want a role with lots of human input and the introvert will need to delimit that load, but why?

We Are Built to Function in Specific Ways—And So Are Businesses 🏗️

Example: The extrovert needs input from other humans to maintain a healthy, resilient psyche. It’s a fundamental requirement. They naturally seek and attract this input, creating a unified system where form and function work together, ensuring success is defined and measured biologically.

Well, a business operates in the same way.

The Core Principle of Business 💡

A business must have a primary function anchored in a principle of unity.

All efforts, goals, and functions should align with and support this primary goal. Feedback mechanisms then gauge performance and satisfaction. Simply put, everything must feed the apex goal:

1. Define function/Goal/Purpose.
2. Align Subsidiary Functions/Goals/Purposes.
3. Measure Effectiveness Based on the Core Objective.

Analogy Time 🧠

Think of the liver—it filters urea from the blood, a survival function. But its ultimate purpose? To keep the body operational so we can focus on our primary tasks, whether that’s being adventurous, supportive, or purpose driven data processor. 

All base functions serve a unifying principle, cascading from a singular purpose. A businesses underlying mechanisms are analogous to components of human behaviour:

Motivations: Goals and success definitions (qualitative) which filter Perceptions 🏆

Behaviours: Actions steps and physical process 🛠️

Autonomous Programs: Habits = Automations ⚙️

Values: Culture (sources of meaning and measurement) 🎯

Business Implications

So a business must establish a unity principle that guides all actions, functions, and subsidiary goals. This principle can evolve over time but should remain clear and compelling enough to shape every aspect of the organization.

Commonly in business, we call this...

The North Star

Just like our psyche we need a motivation focus and target or aim that sets our filter frames and governs perceptions, motivations, behaviours, reflexes and culture. When properly oriented, the north star can help us define everything we need in business, key metrics, Avatars, financial model, strategy, key time horizons and so much more. So you know what is coming next, as you're co-creating it. 

What's your North Star?

What's the one sentence explanation of what your company is doing to do, for who and by when?

Ratifying Your North Star!

As we've established, a North Star is more than just a lofty aspiration—it’s a guiding principle that represents what truly matters to you and your team. So we need to do the work to ensure your North Star is leading you in the right direction? For the rest of the article I have compiled a breakdown of several critical questions that will help you ratify a North Star that drives meaningful results, aligns with your vision, and inspires action. 

This may not be the only ones to ask but these are generic enough, yet focused enough, to improve the orientation of any business and its principle of unity.

| The Goal: Unity of action, of function and of legacy.

From this principle we can also create North Star Metrics - identify a singular measurement or parameter that represents a matrix of feedback that indicates simply,

| WE ARE MOVING TOWARD OUR NORTH STAR!

So read on the following questions can aid in the application of this philosophy to your business. So as the year ends so you are navigationally re-focused for truly relevant success in 2025 and beyond.

1. Does Your North Star Express Customer Value?

Your North Star should reflect what your customers genuinely value about your product. Too often, businesses rely on metrics like “Daily Active Users” or “Registered Users,” which tell you who is using the product but not why it matters to them. So start with Why? to derive a properly coherent north star statement.

✅ Tip: Focus on outcomes that deliver value. Ask yourself, "What is the core benefit my customers receive from my product?" The more connected your metric is to customer success, the better it will guide your team.

2. Does It Represent Your Vision and Strategy?

A strong North Star doesn’t just reflect numbers; it should communicate your company’s strategy and vision at a high level. According to Gibson Biddle, former VP of Product at Netflix, metrics aligned with strategic initiatives help eliminate ambiguity and drive better decision-making.

✅ Tip: Ensure your North Star aligns with your long-term goals. It should help you evaluate whether your strategies are working and adapt if they’re not.

3. Is It a Leading Indicator of Success?

Many businesses rely on lagging indicators like revenue or customer retention. While important, these metrics only tell you what has already happened. A powerful North Star, however, should predict future outcomes and signal medium- to long-term growth.

✅ Tip: Identify behaviors or actions that correlate with success. For example, in a subscription business, a customer regularly engaging with a particular feature may predict future renewals.

4. Is It Actionable?

Your North Star should be within your team’s control. Metrics tied to external factors, like market trends, may feel aspirational but offer little actionable insight. 

✅ Tip: Focus on what you can influence directly. For example, track user engagement with specific features instead of broader industry trends.

5. Is It Understandable to Non-Technical Partners?

A North Star should be simple and jargon-free. If you can’t explain it to someone outside your technical team, it’s not the right verbiage.

✅ Tip: Test your North Star by explaining it to a colleague or partner without technical knowledge. If they understand its value and purpose, you’re on the right track.

6. Is the North Star - Vanglorius?

If the North Star is egotistically oriented and not value delivery oriented we can wind up creating something abstracted from our customer satisfaction and therefore detrimental to our efforts to satisfy through service. This will boil down to the fact that the North Star will fail to offer meaningful interpretation beyond this is happening. So we need a North Star that shows that we are meeting our contract with our customers in a way that feeds the long term company vision. 

✅ Tip: Run a vanity metric test: Ask yourself, “Does this metric directly correlate to our product’s success?” If the answer is no, rethink your North Star.

After running these questions you should be some distance closer to a north star that will drive you in the right direction. However there's still a few more questions to be answered. Chiefly among them, what is a north star metric? Once you've established a powerfully magnetic north star to pull you accurately forward, you now need a metric set and some key feedback loops that indicate you are moving in that direction without error or deviation. The primary in of these will be your: North Star Metric (NSM)

So calling back the meta goal examples

• Survival - How long will the business live?
• Growth - Revenue, customers, how big will we get?
• Influence - What impact will we have directly?
• Transcendence - How will this change the world beyond our direct sphere of influence?

What metric can you measure that shows the best transit toward survival, growth, influence, transcendence? This is a very nuanced and individuated question to ask and obviously depends on the established north star itself, so the best way to illustrate the principle of developing a North Star Metric is to give an example. 

So here it is:

At NOW Group our North star is to create a container for the heroes journey in business and to provide a fellowship prioritised in the form of a network. 

We are a networking organisation so it stands to reason (at least for us) that we believe that the defining factor in business is who you have running alongside you. So we aim to facilitate a support system for the start, middle and conclusion i.e. every phase of business. By providing community and education that is mapped against your professional and business development. With an element of challenge to explore and grow thrown in, to draw more from the hero. This is our aspiration!

So a good way to indicate that has been facilitated would be to look at customer life span and customer phase by phase engagement. I.e. how many are inspired to journey through the phases with us. It’s a narratively focused way of saying, what's our retention level and what upward mobility support do we provide to the client and their business as it grows. 

However, in this phase of our development we have to par back to an appropriate level to be oriented in the finite game of growth. At this time the greatest value increase we can provide to our members is growing options for fellowship, that is to say we are placing high value on the quality and quantity of the people on offer to reciprocally support and nurture one another along the way. Our key goal is to increase that number at a steady but potent rate so we need a metric that mirrors that. 

So we analysed metrics to discover which had the highest rate of independence algorithmically. That is to say what factor has the most subsidiary factors or reliances on its success or what variable indicates the satisfaction of multiple other factors or metrics that it is broadly emblematic of the activity of the business as a whole.

In our case, the client's inbound referral immediately jumped out, but WHY?

A stable networking container relies on relationships so groups that grow have a baseline of stability to build from and that is best supported by a core foundation of already connected individuals. In other words a group's growth is best served by having a nexus of established relationships at its conception. So confidence to refer connections in, is imperative to early and sustained success to build that nexus. Whilst also indicating satisfaction enough to create a level of advocacy and the higher the level of advocacy the greater the weighting of that feedback.

In other words if we know people will refer in at a given rate, we know they trust we can deliver on our value propositions and they are garnering ROI.

Independent variable: Referral in-bound

Dependent variables: Customer confidence | Value delivery | Relational stability | Customer ROI | Illustrates core proposition of referral generation | Customer base growth 

So using this critical logic and reasoning we can extrapolate a variable that meets multiple targets, and therefore acts as a higher order principle. Subsequently defining, strategy, tactics and delivery.

So our next moves are designed to satisfy that concluson. 

A final key question 

What’s the difference between a north star and a vision statement?

• Vision: A vision is a long-term aspirational statement that defines the future state a company aims to achieve. It describes the company’s purpose, goals, and the impact it wants to make on the world. It relies on the North Star's functional output to be manifested.

• North Star: A North Star is a single, measurable function that reflects the core value a company delivers to its customers. It acts as a guiding metric to drive strategy and decision-making, helping teams focus on what matters most to achieve sustainable growth.

• North Star Metric (NSM): A North Star is a single, measurable metric that reflects or indicates the operational satisfaction of the company's north star.

It's incredibly important to distinguish between these terms to understand their roles in feeding motivation and defining the tangible and measurable components. 

The more ineffable Vision statement is powerful but without a way marker defining set of metrics, we can career off in the wrong direction or simply not understand and interpret our progress. Having said that, when it comes to motivation and the art of guiding a team towards success, providing a just cause in the vision can shape the company culture in such a way you simply get more from everything you do. 

So define, distribute and delimit these components and your companies culture and strategy will emerge with greater ease, at every level. 

Final Thoughts: Choosing a North Star That Matters

A well-defined North Star creates a point of confluence that guides your team, aligns your strategies, and predicts long-term success. By focusing on customer value, actionable insights, and meaningful outcomes, you’ll avoid the pitfalls of ego-metrics and lead your business in a 'true' direction.

So before you hit the planning in December and January for your best year yet, take a moment to evaluate your current North Star:

• Does it reflect what your customers value?
• Does it align with your vision?
• Is it actionable, measurable, and predictive of future success?

If not, it’s time to recalibrate. A true North Star is more than just a pithy tagline, it’s a navigational beacon.

Thanks for reading, to discuss this or anything in your business with me and my team feel free to reach out, we love the game and we love finding like minded players. Perhaps we can see you out there before much longer, till then - stay true.