PUSH FOR GROWTH
Is Growth for the Sake of Growth What You Really Want?
Leaders
everywhere are struggling to find the best way to satisfy customer needs while
maintaining a reliable, skilled, and engaged workforce.
I recently
met with Bill, a client of mine, and asked him this clarifying question, “Can
you tell me why you bought out three other companies in the past year and a
half?”
Bill is the
owner, and president, of a service company he started 25 years ago.
“That’s simple. To grow,” he replied.
“Why do you want
to grow?”
“Why not?
Growth is good.” He smiled at me in a patronizing way that indicated he wasn't sure why he'd hired someone who didn’t understand such a simple concept to help
his company.
“Well,” I replied, “here’s the reality. Since
you started this growth campaign, two long-time key leaders who were
instrumental in the success you enjoyed in the decade and a half before you
decided to acquire these companies, have left. Two of your three remaining
top-level managers don't trust each other and are in constant conflict. Most
employees fear one and feel sorry for the other. They're burned out; many are
thinking of leaving and have resigned themselves to do what they need to
survive and nothing more. Finally, a large number of customers have closed their
accounts in the past six months. Let me ask you this, have the results of the changes
you’ve made met your expectations? Is this really what you planned to do?”
Bill didn't respond
because he didn't like being asked those questions. I wouldn't either. But, we both knew the answer was, “No.” He was learning the hard lesson that growth for
the sake of growth is no more effective at helping you get what you want than punching
yourself in the face because you want to know what it feels like to punch
someone in the face.
Change is NOT Evil!
Neither is
Bill. He really did want to make positive changes. He certainly got changes
just not the ones he really wanted. Successful
change happens for organizations because of one, or more, of the following
reasons:
- Relationship Dynamics- People connect with each other when they see a net-positive value-proposition in doing so (intrinsic, extrinsic, or a combination of both) and they adjust their level of investment according to the value they get out of it in relation to their expectations.
- Innovation- Someone does something new and different that creates the potential for a redistribution of one or more resources in a given culture, community, or market.
- Growth- Someone seeks the prospect of meeting the needs of more people than they have in the past.
The order of
the three points listed above is important… critical actually. There is a very
strong human tendency to want to cut around the process and get straight to the
good stuff. It’s easy to see that growth can lead to more mutually beneficial
relationships, more business. More business can mean more profits so that’s
where we think we want to focus.
The Change-Pull Effect
There are two
fundamental problems with trying to create growth for the sake of growth:
- It undermines the ability to deliver a net-positive value for all key stakeholders involved because it assumes no considerations are necessary to continue to meet their needs before growth-focused action occurs.
- It assumes innovative solutions that will redistribute resources in a mutually beneficial manner for all stakeholders involved will just happen.
So, in the
case of Bill’s company the desire for growth created different and new
behaviors (purchasing new companies with the prospect of serving more
customers) that resulted in a net-negative value delivered and over time the
various stakeholders engaged less at variable rates. Some key leaders and
customers divested completely while others adjusted how they related to each
other and the company.
Bill and his
company were experiencing problems caused by the “change-pull effect”. It
happened when Bill created a vacuum through self-serving changes in how his
company operated expecting everyone to adjust and fill in the gaps. It’s a
technique…not the recommended technique…but a technique, just the same. What
typically happens is: Growth pulls away from the innovation because the
affected stakeholders perceive they’re being excluded so they resist. They pull
back.
The whole
point is, real mutually beneficial relationships are magical- When one occurs,
every stakeholder involved walks away from interactions, transactions, and
situations feeling like they've gotten more out of it than they put in. See?
Magic. It’s the reason why you can’t
skip past the relationship dynamics; the magic will be lost.
The
change-pull effect doesn't only happen during acquisitions; it can also happen
when an organization attempts to launch new products, new, services, new
customers, new locations…any time changes are made to grow for the self-serving
sake of growth.
When You're at Risk
- The best time to stop, listen and adjust is before you create negative pull-change effects. In other words when this kind of conversation happens:
You-
“We’ll figure it out.”
Any
employee-“I just wish we'd think this through first.”
- The second-best-time to adjust is as soon as possible after you’ve created negative pull-change effects. The conversation will probably sound like this:
You-
“You’ll figure it out” (See what you did there? Your employee does.)
Any
employee- “OK, I'll do my best but I just wish we’d thought this through
first!”
(Thinks to self: “In the end, I'll have fixed the problems they created and they'll get all the credit. Maybe this isn’t the best place for me.”)
(Thinks to self: “In the end, I'll have fixed the problems they created and they'll get all the credit. Maybe this isn’t the best place for me.”)
The Solution: Create Push-Change Effects
The solution
for Bill, and people who have created similar punishing change-pull effects in
their own organizations is…more change. But, here the change must begin with
them. They need to change how they think so they can create positive
push-change effects for their key stakeholders which will create opportunities
for growth. Here’s how they can do it:
- Focus on the needs of the people they wish to serve and seek to understand the gaps between those desires and the value the organization can currently deliver.
- Closing the gaps identified in #1 takes innovation- new and different decisions, behaviors, tools and processes. When innovation creates more efficient use of resources the capacity to serve is increased and the conditions for successfully meeting the needs of more people are set.
- Grow by seeking new mutually beneficial relationships and then reap the additional profits.
The solution may
seem like it takes longer to get what you really want than just seeking growth
for the sake of growth…because growth is good. But, it doesn’t. Just ask Bill. He’s
got a lot of work to do now…relationships to mend.
Have you experienced the Change-Pull Effect before? Share your story and what you learned from the experience in the comment section below! Be a part of the conversation!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tom Eakin is the author of Finding Success and the Success Engineer at BoomLife. LEARN MORE ABOUT TOM...
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