Are You Getting Ready to Explode?
(Growth-wise That Is!)
by Adele Sommers, Ph.D.

What does it take to create a stellar organization — one that can respond quickly to changing requirements, withstand explosive growth, delight and retain customers, and sustain momentum over time?

Several strategic factors contribute to creating such idyllic conditions, including:

1) Establishing a robust foundation
2) Developing personnel expertise
3) Removing obstacles to productivity
4) Aligning consequences in your organization
5) Managing project activities, and
6) Honing product, service, and customer value

This article introduces each factor, explains the role it plays, and recommends ways to introduce them within your enterprise.

Factor #1: Establishing a Robust Foundation

Creating the conditions for success in your organization results directly from fine-tuning the cause-and-effect relationships among three critical building blocks: personnel, offerings, and customers.

All three must align for the business to achieve optimal business results. Your enterprise systems and processes play an important role in balancing these needs.

Before your company can respond to rapid shifts or prepare for expansion, you’ll want to look around for leaks and cracks. Ask, “How do communications and work products flow from suppliers, within the organization, and to customers? Who hands off what to whom? Is this ideal or should we optimize processes?”

The answers will reveal where critical gaps reside in your foundation, and what you might need to do to seal them before everyone can perform effectively on a much larger, faster scale.

Factor #2: Developing Personnel Expertise

Companies with a desire to remain flexible, energized, and profitable help personnel aim their talents along their greatest strengths. By closely matching strengths with roles, you’ll create a powerful strategic advantage within your organization.

Then by asking, “What should people learn to help the entire organization achieve its goals? How can we integrate learning with work?” you’ll reveal further clues about where to expand expertise.

Encouraging people to embrace a continuous-learning outlook helps support and grow the organization. Methods for achieving continuous learning include, but aren’t limited to, formal instruction, training, on-the-job apprenticeship, team problem solving, job rotation, cross-training of personnel, and electronic support systems that guide people in performing their work in a just-in-time fashion.

Factor #3: Removing Obstacles to Productivity

When people are struggling to do their jobs but can’t seem to function effectively, it may be because of obstacles blocking their way.

If the people in your organization have skill deficiencies — that is, a true lack of job knowledge — or not enough job practice, you would remedy those through training and/or more repetition on the job. But if people already know how to do their jobs and are facing hurdles, then it’s time to hunt for “hassles” in your organization.

If you’re unsure of where to look for them, try asking people what’s impeding their work. They may be missing the proper level of authority, tools, job support, guidance, resources, information, or incentives to be effective. They also might also be grappling with faulty communications, poorly run meetings, awkward procedures and handoffs, non-cooperative managers or peers, or other problems. By systematically correcting these hassles, you should see a dramatic increase in morale and the bottom line.

Factor #4: Aligning Consequences in Your Organization

Even when personnel are trained and obstacles have been removed, businesses often overlook key opportunities to be sure they’re “walking their talk.” If management says one thing but does another, it’s sending mixed signals, and will likely experience mixed results. Mixed messages communicate to personnel that they can’t trust what they hear, so they are unlikely to put forth their best effort. The casualties in these situations include morale and motivation.

If you’re interested in boosting achievement, you’ll want to be aware of how even mildly confusing messages can discourage people from performing. So, you’ll want to ensure that no one discourages people from doing what they’ve been asked to do, while also encouraging the actions, behaviors, and attitudes you do want to see.

Factor #5: Managing Project Activities

Many organizations and entrepreneurs don’t realize that much of what they work on every day involves project endeavors. Projects are usually goal-oriented, of limited duration, and constrained by finite conditions. Examples of projects include Web site launches, product development, advertising campaigns, and training rollouts.

Yet it’s not uncommon for people working on projects to remain unaware of core project management functions. These include planning and scheduling; managing risks, changes, and scope; communicating with stakeholders and team members; rolling out deliverables, learning from experience; and deriving best practices.

Each one of these aspects contributes greatly to bringing projects to fruition. Without them, projects often struggle along, experiencing complications and snags. Learning basic project management skills helps people prevent problems, resolve imbalances that arise, and produce stellar results.

Factor #6: Honing Product, Service, and Customer Value

Customer retention research shows that it costs up to five times more to attract new customers than to keep existing ones. So, once consumers are excited about your offerings, strive to keep them from becoming disgruntled and taking their business elsewhere. The secret is creating consistently pleasant customer experiences.

There are several ways to transform customers into “raving fans.”

First, make your offerings easy to use by designing them to be as simple and transparent as possible.

Rigorously test, evaluate, and refine all the interfaces and functions of your products, services, and Web sites.

Fanatically remove all of the hassles customers experience when they interact with your offerings, systems, policies, and staff.

Make sure your offerings are bulletproof under sub-optimal conditions, and prevent variation in your product and service quality.

Under-promise and over-deliver.

Then consider ways to increase novelty and enjoyment, such as through theme-based buying experiences. The more of these techniques you apply, the more thrilled your customers will be!

In conclusion, establishing a robust foundation, developing personnel expertise, removing obstacles to productivity, aligning consequences, managing projects, and refining customer experiences with your offerings can produce an organization that thrives on growth — and then sustains its momentum through constant refinement.

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About the Author

Adele Sommers, Ph.D. is author of “Straight Talk on Boosting Business Performance: 12 Ways to Profit from Hidden Potential.” To learn more about her book and sign up for more free tips like these, visit her site at www.LearnShareProsper.com

This article may be distributed freely on your Web site, as long as this entire article, including the links and full “About the Author” section, are unchanged. Please send a copy of, or link to, your “reprint” to Adele@LearnShareProsper.com.

Copyright 2006 Business Performance Inc., Adele Sommers, All Rights Reserved.

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