You are not failing! Understanding organisational growing pains

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I often help growing organisations that have been successful, yet are starting to feel like they are overwhelmed as well as grinding to a halt.  This often comes with a feeling of failure in the CEO and perhaps the Exec team, with good old imposter syndrome usually raising its head.

The good news is…. the situation is not a failure at all.  It’s completely normal. 

And to explain this as well as to know what to do, I often lean on the brilliant work of Dr. Ichak Adizes, in particular his Business Lifecycle.

The real work is (often) not about the system

My work with my clients who have built their own businesses often looks like org design and work systems.

But that’s just the surface.

Someone who is talented and entrepreneurial enough to build a business from their own kitchen table to being able to cover the lease agreement for offices that house 30+ staff has no trouble understanding the work.

That’s not the issue, and heading to another seminar, or listening to someone like me describe what has to happen is not going help.  It’s the equivalent of reading more recipe books as a method to get some food on the table.

The challenge is to see this work as the business priority.  And there are multiple signals available that can be used as a way to put this work off until later.  Cash flow is a great one, and might even be the case.  Organising a group of people to do great work is definitely no longer an issue if we can’t make payroll.  Pressing needs of what we might call ‘pillar’ clients is another.