When Speed Stops Working
The band that got together
There is a wonderful stage in the life of a business when almost nothing is properly organised.
And yet somehow, everything works.
It’s early days, there are two, or six or eight of you. Everyone knows what everyone else is doing. Decisions happen across desks, leaning over from a chair, on WhatsApp, over coffee or halfway through a conversation about something completely different.
A customer has a problem.
Somebody is on it, and sorts it.
An opportunity appears.
Three people abandon whatever they were doing and go chase it.
Nobody needs to consult the process manual.
They can’t.
There isn't one.
It's fast. Slightly chaotic. Long hours. Often great fun.
I've worked in and around businesses like this for most of my life. At their best, they have an energy that larger organisations spend fortunes trying to recreate. I’m reminded of Picasso wanting to paint like a child.
People trust each other.
They take ownership.
They solve problems.
And then the business succeeds. And that… That is where the trouble starts.
When speed stops working
Those eight people become 15. Then 30.
Subsequently, there are more customers, more projects and more people who weren't there when the original gang got together.
Something that would once have been solved by shouting across the room?
Now it requires three people who don't necessarily know that each other are even involved in the task. Mistakes become a little expensive. Quality becomes inconsistent. And customers start to notice.
The founder notices too. And the natural reaction, usually, is to tighten the grip.
Check more work.
Attend more meetings.
Approve more decisions.
Ask to be copied into more emails.
We understand.But…
This can accidentally make the problem worse.
And the founder adds to that further:
They complain that their people don't take enough ownership. Simultaneously, they’re training them to seek approval. They want people to make decisions, but become irritated when someone makes the wrong one.
So, eventually, everyone learns the safest option:
Ask the founder.
Congratulations!
You've just built yourself a job for life.
The problem may not be your people
When a growing business starts struggling, the symptoms can often look like people problems.
"They don't communicate."
"Nobody takes responsibility."
"Why do I have to tell them everything?"
"How many times do we have to make the same mistake?"
There are times, of course, when we hired the wrong person. Other times, more often, we've got perfectly good people. But they’re operating inside a business that has outgrown its original operating system.
The company is trying to run 30 people using structures that worked brilliantly for 8. And the 8, by default, had and needed a very different attitude.
It's a bit like adding three storeys to your house, taking in 6 lodgers, and then blaming your kids when the plumbing stops working. The answer isn't necessarily more control, it's better architecture.
Trust needs architecture
One of the more interesting areas of leadership research concerns something called Positive Relational Energy.
In simple terms? Some people leave us with more energy after we've dealt with them. Others seem to remove it.
We all know both types. And research suggests these energising relationships have a surprisingly strong relationship with performance, engagement and leadership success.
This matters a lot while a growing business because the early company often runs almost entirely on relationships.
You just know that Sarah will sort it. And Dave knows what you mean when you say, "Do it like the Henderson job."
Everyone understands what constitutes good because they've spent three years sitting next to you while you decided what good looked like.
Then the business employs ten more people. They’re new people. They don't know.
Trust still matters enormously. But now the trust needs architecture to establish itself and actually be positive.
People need to understand what they're responsible for.
They need access to the information required to do their jobs.
They need to know what good looks like.
They need to know which decisions they can make themselves and which genuinely need escalating.
That isn't bureaucracy. It is structure, and good structure creates freedom.
From speed to quality
The young business is typically optimised for speed.
Get the proposal out.
Fix the problem.
Win the customer.
Ship it.
Speed matters most, because we're competing against organisations with more money, more people and better-known brands. Our ability to move faster is our advantage.
When we’re small we don’t have many advantages, so we leverage what we can.
Growth changes the equation.
We still need speed, but now we also need repeatability and quality.
And this is where systems tend to get a bad name.
Mention systems to some entrepreneurs and you can almost see the life draining from their eyes. They imagine process maps, approval committees and a 74-page handbook explaining how to order a pencil. I certainly used to.
But that's not systems, it’s bureaucracy.
A good system should do almost the opposite.
A good system should allow a competent person to make a good decision without asking you, the founder. That’s it!
The knowledge that once existed in someone's head becomes accessible. Responsibility that was once assumed becomes clear. And the founder's judgement gradually becomes principles that other people can use.
Good systems don't control good people. They help good people act.
From founder energy to organisational energy
I mentioned above that the 8, by default, needed a very different attitude.
In the early days, the energy of a business comes directly from its founders.
Their enthusiasm sets the pace.
Their standards define quality.
Their relationships win customers.
Their urgency gets things done.
That can be enormously effective, while sometimes a little exhausting. But it also has a ceiling.
The founder's job has to change, their being must evolve, from being the person generating all that energy to building an organisation capable of generating it. This requires more than writing a few SOPs or buying the latest project-management software. It requires leadership.
People need to feel trusted enough to make decisions and safe enough to say when something isn't working. They need clarity about where the business is going and how their work contributes. They need systems that help rather than hinder them. And, importantly, they need interactions with leaders that leave them clearer and more capable, rather than nervous about making the next mistake.
There’s an interesting relationship between leadership and systems. And we need both.
Great relationships without structure can produce a lovely group of people running around putting out fires.
Great systems without good relationships can produce corporate sludge.
Don't destroy the band
Professionalising a business is a phrase I've never particularly liked.
It sounds as though everyone needs to start wearing grey suits and requesting permission to buy biscuits.
The objective isn't to turn an entrepreneurial business into a miniature corporation. Quite the opposite in my book.
You want to preserve the things that made the original band so effective.
The urgency.
The trust.
The humour.
The willingness to muck in.
The feeling that when something needs doing, somebody will do it.
As the business grows, informality won’t protect those qualities.
Strategy
You need enough visible strategy that people know where they're going.
Structure
You need enough structure that they know what they own.
Systems
And you need enough systems to allow good work to be repeated.
And, you need enough trust that people don't wait for the founder before doing something sensible. The business that got you here was built around a group of people who knew each other well enough to move quickly.
The business that will get you there needs to achieve something a little different. It needs to work that well even when you're not in the room.
Easter Eggs in this week’s article
“memory of a free festival” – Memory Of A Free Festival, by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
“shaping up” – Weather To Fly, by The Swingle Singers
“trouble” – Trouble, by Coldplay
“Sarah” – Sarah, by Thin Lizzy
P.S.
Are you blaming your people?
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