This week I am in Tahoe, our usual summer (and winter) escape plan, where Mary and I hike with the dog, swim in the lake, and barbeque on the deck. Tessa, our youngest, is off at arts camp, and Marisa, just graduated from high school, is at her summer job.

I look forward to these vacations for the obvious reasons: relaxation, the beauty of the Sierra Nevada, and a stack of books, topped by the new Harry Potter novel.

But I also look forward to the cleansing effect of the mountains on my thought process. It reboots my system. Often on a hike a moment of clarity or inspiration that has eluded me in the daily grind at home will come full-blown into my head. It could be a possible approach with a client, a new research interest, or an idea for how to manage an internal challenge.

I think the human brain must work in such a way that the raw resources for these inspirations are already present, but somehow the brain needs less, or different, stimuli, in order for them to take shape.

All this attention to our internal organization is more than just navel-gazing. We are already applying some of what we are learning to our work with clients. For example, we have used our transformation process as a case example in an executive leadership program we are leading. This conversation led participants to consider new ways they might want to organize their leadership teams.

The central lesson we have learned so far is that a group of highly committed professionals can reduce hierarchy to a minimum, spread responsibilities widely, and get the work done more effectively than was possible in a traditional structure.