#010 – Order Is Easier to Create than Keep – The Growth Deception

Experience teaches that it is much more difficult to maintain something you have built than to build it in the first place. Especially organizations. Those early start-up years seem amazingly difficult and yet once by the survival stage the real challenges start. Hiring, leadership development, keeping people on the same page, competitors, economics, pandemics — the battle is constant and unending.

There are 5 deceptions that contribute to this surprise. The first is the “growth deception” stated as: ‘headcount increases linearly, but communication‐related challenges grow geometrically.” 

Most leaders do not understand that as they grow their headcount 8 times from 8 to 25, that the complexity of communication paths (potential interactions) has grown 117 times. What this means is that adding resources requires the leader to manage differently. Growth requires much more time and energy be devoted to working on the business instead of in it

Principle

Growth changes leadership requirements. If leaders don’t adjust their approach, eventually the organization outgrows its own ability to execute. It happens to all types organizations eventually whether for profit, not-for-profit, churches, governments, etc.