notes on growing too fast (lessons learned)
The past few months have been brutal. For the first time in a long time, work just didn't make sense. I couldn't understand how I could be so deliberate, well-intentioned, and thorough in my planning, yet it seemed like the wheels fell off.
Here are a few things I could have known a year ago:
Don't try to build a plane mid-flight: Invest heavily in training and building systems upfront, or you'll pay for it later.
Growth capability is a function of subject matter expertise + experience in change management: The pace of growth a system can cohesively allow is a function of the team's experience (change management + individual role). I.e., a team that has undergone rapid growth and has subject-matter experts can grow much faster than a team that hasn't experienced growth, especially if that team is getting lots of on-the-job training.
The people that got you here may not be the ones to take you there: Some people will tell you they want to grow, more responsibility, etc., but their actions don't align with their words. You don't need to try and 'keep the gang together.' Embrace change. Celebrate the contributions of team members. Don't feel pressured to keep people around. When it's not working for the organization, it's not working for the individual, and vice versa.
Reporting is the name of the game: If you're a leader, don't blindly accept information that is prepared for you. Dig deeper into the numbers, notes, source documentation, etc. This keeps people accountable and can prevent major mistakes.
A manager/leader who craves sameness in a growing organization will be problematic: People have different narrative arcs, and they change over time. Some folks crave sameness and others crave change. Check-in regularly to understand whether people crave growth or stability.
Cultivate routines, rituals, and be consistent with meetings to be grounding: Growth is inherently destabilizing. You must consciously work to stabilize the system during times of change.
Communicate with folks two levels down and two levels up to ensure messages are cascading appropriately: Communication is paramount. As an organization grows, access to the right information at the right time is of the utmost importance. Build redundancy in communication.
Change takes a toll on people: Even the most well-intentioned growth and change have unintended consequences.
To be continued with a cautionary tale...
finishing 2022 strong
Shifting gears, below is an excerpt from an email to our team.
Growth is a word that brings up a lot of feelings (especially around here). While I’ve resisted acknowledging a widely shared sentiment, I’m willing to admit it: we grew too fast. When things grow too fast, accountability is lost, and when accountability is lost, we lose our sense of belonging. Accountability isn’t punitive. Accountability to each other is the foundation of unity.
Here’s an excerpt from SmartTribes by Christine Comaford: “Accountability is so deeply tied to promises and trust that safety, belonging, and mattering are quickly damaged when accountability is dropped…in my experience, trust is broken in three levels…
Capability: Is the person truly capable of doing what was promised?
Commitment: Is she committed to following through on what was promised?
Character: If a person keeps making promises and breaking them, who is she, really?”
I’ve spoken to many of our team one-on-one or in small groups over the past two weeks. Some common themes that have emerged: (1) we grew too fast and it felt destabilizing, (2) agreements were broken, which led to a lack of trust; and (3) our team gives a damn and wants to ‘figure it out.’ So what’s the path forward? How do we get grounded? What do we need to do to finish 2022 strong?
Clear expectations, agreements, and accountability: Everyone wants to know if they’re doing a good job. We have a lot of hardworking, compassionate people and it’s exhausting to give your best only to feel like you’re coming up short. We’re getting back to the basics – job descriptions, expectations, and core functions in writing. This will also include a renewed focus on personal-professional development plans.
Consistent routines, meetings, and supervision/management: It’s hard to feel grounded when you don’t have a consistent routine. Our team has doubled in size over the past 12 months; the organizational chart has gone through multiple iterations; we’ve added multiple lines of service. Now it’s time to bring it all together. We’re going to slow down and focus on consistency – having the same meetings at the same time, providing high-quality supervision, and ensuring that everyone receives formal feedback from their supervisor quarterly.
More appreciation, communication, and celebration: When we’re moving quickly, things get lost in the shuffle. Personally, I can get super busy doing things that are supposed to benefit others. I am learning that by slowing down to have one-on-one conversations, sharing time and space, listening to individual’s fears, and sharing information, I can have a more positive impact on others. Let’s get in the Thanksgiving spirit early this year – let’s overcommunicate our appreciation for one another.
There is a lot of craziness in the world right now from the recent shooting in Raleigh to the collapse of the Japanese bond market. Let’s be there for each other, as humans not just teammates, colleagues, or coworkers. We can’t control the world, but we can control how we treat each other.
thoughts + quotes + observations
“When I was five years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy.’ They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” – John Lennon
9 Ideas on Living Deliberately from Charlie Munger (watch the commencement speech here)
To get what you want, deserve what you want.
Acquire wisdom, for it’s both a moral duty and a practical one.
Learn the big multidisciplinary ideas of the world and use them regularly.
Think through problems forward and backward.
Be reliable. Unreliability can cancel out the other virtues.
Avoid intense ideologies.
Do the work to have an opinion of your own.
Avoid being part of a system with perverse incentives.
You’ll achieve the greatest success where you’re most intensely interested.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard & Reza Aslan: given the protests in Iran, this is an interesting podcast that discusses the Iranian Revolution, the role of religion in society, and much more. It’s a good listen and if you’re not familiar with Dax, he is very open with his recovery (which doesn’t come up much in this one).
