Pods
An org chart doesn't capture how work actually happens. At LiminalArc every team member operates inside three distinct structures at the same time, each with a clean job to do. This page lays out that framework — one person, three places — and why we keep them separate on purpose.
The Core Insight Account work is not the same force as career development. Your account is where you deliver value, your pod is where you belong, and your practice is where you grow.
The Premise
Account work is not the same force as career development. Keeping the three structures separate is deliberate: each has a clean job to do, and conflating them creates friction for both the individual and the firm. Read them as the three places every team member lives at once.
The Model
Every team member operates inside three structures simultaneously. Together they explain why your account is where you deliver, your pod is where you belong, and your practice is where you grow.
Structure 01
Where you deliver — Accounts & Clients
How we deliver outcomes to clients — who is on the account, the delivery hierarchy, and how we create value in exchange for services. Client-facing and delivery-oriented. Temporary by nature — forms and dissolves with engagements. Hierarchy exists because delivery requires it: someone calls the shot. This is the System of Engagement, tailored per account.
Structure 02
Where you belong — Pods (within Practices)
How the firm is organized. Pods of five to eight people inside a practice, each led by a pod leader who holds the team member's relationship to the firm. Kept flat and "messy" on purpose. The primary relationship is to the firm, not the account. Pod leaders own career stewardship, firm-information relay, feedback, and belonging. Firm news flows through pods, not accounts — the minimum hierarchy required to make a decision clearly.
Structure 03
Where you grow — CoEs & Communities of Practice
How people grow. Organized around Centers of Excellence and Communities of Practice — not account-specific. It belongs to the individual and the firm: certifications, upskilling, and cross-skilling. Practices define the language of growth — competencies, assessments, career ladders. Centers of Excellence concentrate and codify deep expertise and standards; Communities of Practice share craft across accounts. Feeds the System of Continuous Improvement.
At a Glance
In most consultancies the account is the center of gravity — people grow on the project and scatter when it ends. LiminalArc inverts this. Belonging and knowledge survive the end of any single engagement.
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