Organizational Design

Recovering an Organization from the Fallout of Rapid Growth

Situation

Rapid growth can distract an organization from building the necessary structure, systems and processes to support that growth. Leaders simply don’t feel they have the luxury of pausing to assess what’s needed. As a result, reacting and doing “whatever it takes” becomes standard operating procedure and even a cultural point of pride. Fortunately, it can be turned around if recognized in time and Quinn Strategy Group was engaged by leadership to help them recover from slipping quality, disappearing profitability and pure exhaustion.

Action

Our experience working with organizations at every stage of the business life cycle has given us unique insight into what is required to repair after rapid growth. We first worked with the leadership team to surface the organizational dynamics and culture that were in play. Our goal was to help them get to a much deeper understanding of each operational area and how the leadership team communicated and worked together. Thanks to the insights we gained, we were able to conduct a much more meaningful organizational assessment than would have been possible had we only looked at the symptoms. The assessment included interviews with the leadership team, functional department leaders and employees. We then engaged the leadership team to define the organizational culture they desired and to understand the leadership culture needed to get them there. Armed with their vision for the future, we provided the leadership team with prioritized recommendations, key questions for ongoing exploration and clear next steps for course correcting.

Impact

We encouraged the leadership team to adopt several high-value, low-risk ideas to implement right away. These early wins energized the leadership team and sent a clear message to all employees that change was afoot. We also guided the leadership team in setting annual goals and strategies, and very importantly, a process to measure quality, profitability and the cultural markers that would indicate if they were indeed on the right track in embodying the culture they wanted to see in the future. Recovered from the unintended consequences of rapid growth, they are ready to work with us on business planning next.

A lot of organizations don’t decide how they want to grow until they’re well into their growth phase. It’s easy to become reactive and, when that happens, you inevitably start to make people, execution and prioritization mistakes.

Ann Quinn

410-458-2600

[email protected]