For so many business leaders, that is the dream! And for so many business leaders, the dream can quickly become a nightmare when team size outpaces the organization’s capacity for coordination and execution. The resulting situation can only be described as “victims of their own success”.
Fortunately, even rapid scaling can be done effectively but it helps to start by understanding the common pitfalls.
Pitfall 1: We made it this far
Much of the conversation around “what got you here won’t get you there” seems to center around individual careers and climbing the corporate ladder (probably because that’s what the book by that title focuses on). But the same concept applies to entire companies just as well.
Just as physical objects of varying mass will respond differently to the same environment, organizations also evolve their behaviours over time. Smaller organizations can be more nimble – pivoting and adapting quickly. Larger organizations’ momentum can plow right through many barriers. But when a large organization sees an obstacle ahead and tries to dance around it like a smaller team might, that is when problems truly arise.
Pitfall 2: We only hire A+ talent
Hiring top talent is often key to reaching the elbow of the hockey stick. Smaller organizations can be incredibly creative when it comes to attracting and retaining great employees. Of course, larger organizations will also benefit from hiring and retaining excellence but the definition of excellence tends to evolve as a company grows.
Consider, for example, the famous “10X engineer” who can theoretically deliver ten times as much value as their colleagues. An enduring part of the 10X engineer myth is their bristly and uncollaborative nature. While being able to single handedly deliver above and beyond as an individual can be quite valuable to a small team, the negative social impact can quickly nullify the advantages in a larger group. Said more bluntly, jerks can easily counteract any amount of individual productivity by harming the overall group.
Pitfall 3: We all get along so well
Which brings us to the third pitfall: confusing camaraderie with collaboration. Certainly, small teams will benefit from feeling connected to each other. There is great research around the importance of belonging and small teams facing large challenges will certainly benefit from enjoying the long hours they must spend together. The value of belonging and camaraderie never goes away but a larger team needs more than goodwill to effectively collaborate.
The COVID-19 pandemic shone a spotlight on the value of “water cooler” conversations but any leader of a large organization knows that those conversations are plugs rather than a full dam. Once the team is too big for everyone to know everyone, relying purely on tribal knowledge and happenstance becomes inefficient. Competing approaches will spring up in different parts of the organization, shattering the culture and forming silos.
So how can an organization avoid these pitfalls? Awareness of the challenges is a good start but here are 3 strategies to shore up your organization through rapid growth.
Strategy 1: Lean into your current strengths
Climbing up the hockey stick may mean losing some of your nimble adaptiveness but focusing on the loss is a waste of time and energy. Instead, think about what is possible now that you have a larger team working towards your goals.
What challenges used to seem insurmountable that your current team could tackle without a second thought? What were the important items that landed on the backburner while urgent fires were smothered? How can you use your growth and take full advantage of the resulting momentum you have built?
Strategy 2: Rise the tide, rise all your boats
When employees have a clear understanding of how their work supports the company’s goals and how they are expected to collaborate with their colleagues, great things can happen. Most people want to do good work but without some basic common language and expectations, they will quickly find themselves more focused on how to do their jobs than they are on actually doing them. With the right support and framework, everyone can be more effective, both individually and together.
How can your employees see their contributions moving the needle for the entire organization? What guidelines does your company rely on to collaborate across teams or across functions? Where might there be misunderstandings that you can address proactively to keep your employees focused on doing the work rather than arguing over how to do the work?
Strategy 3: Plan regular reflection points
Even during a hockey-stick style, rapid growth phase it is quite possible to have a boiling frog experience. Trying to reflect on what is new or different or painful today versus yesterday is rarely going to yield valuable insights. Instead, keep yourself focused on the daily challenges on a daily basis while creating dedicated, separate opportunities to tackle the larger questions. There is a reason that so many teams plan offsites and regardless of your physical location but regardless of where you reflect, finding the right cadence for your growth will yield insights invisible from the centre of the whirlwind.
The first two strategies listed several questions you can ask yourself. Creating dedicated, appropriately spaced checkpoints for yourself and your leadership team where you can discuss them will pay remarkable dividends.
Somewhat ironically, putting too much structure and process into place too early can prevent rapid growth from occurring in the first place but waiting too long can lead to an equally rapid contraction. By maintaining awareness of the common pitfalls and following these strategies for avoiding them, you will position your team to take the best advantage of your circumstances. Your team can continue to be the victors, rather than the victims, of your ongoing success.
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About Author
Belle Walker is the Founder and Lead Consultant of Belleview Consulting. The original Organizational Efficiency Engineer, Belle takes clients from Friction to Function™ by aligning structures and processes with strategy. With a Mechanical Engineering bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a Systems Engineering master’s degree from the University of Southern California, Belle leverages the engineering problem-solving process to design and build the most complex systems possible: those comprised of individuals.
Company Website: https://belleviewconsulting.com/
