One of the problems that arise when development does not match the size and complexity of an organization is called growing pains. They are a sign and a warning that the organization wants to grow further, because it comes from successes rather than failures within the organization. If the root causes of organizational growth pains are not properly addressed, even successful organizations will undoubtedly run into difficulties or even fail. To address growing pains, we must first identify the pain points and assess their severity. Author丨Eric Framhauts** Teaching Workshop (ID: CLECCHINA).
The nature of growing painsGrowing pains are the same problem that arises when the development of an organization does not match its size and complexity, and they are a symptom of the mistakes that occur in the development process of the organization. As such, they can be seen as a signal or warning that an organization's development needs to shift from one stage to the next.
Ironically, growing pains arise from organizational success, not failure. They are inherent problems within the organization, and they are also a signal or symptom of an underlying systemic problem in the organization. A potential systemic problem is when an organization's infrastructure doesn't match or keep up with the scale and complexity of the business. That is,Organizational resources, operating systems, management systems, and corporate culture (the top 4 variables on the organizational development pyramid) have not evolved enough to support the size, complexity, and growth of the organization.
A simple rule of thumb: doubling the size of an organization (measured by metrics such as revenue, production, annual budget, or number of employees) requires a different infrastructure. If the infrastructure is not adjusted, the pain points of organizational growth will increase and intensify.
If the root causes of organizational growth pains are not properly addressed, even successful organizations will undoubtedly run into difficulties or even fail. To address growing pains, we must first identify the pain points and assess their severity.
The 10 most prevalent organizational growing painsThe ten most common (or typical) organizational pains are listed below.
1 People feel that there is not enough time in the day. 2 People spend a lot of time "putting out fires." 3 Many people don't know what other people are doing. 4 There is a lack of understanding of where the company is headed. 5 There are too few "good" managers. 6 Everyone feels that "if I want to do things right, I have to do it myself." 7 Most people feel that meeting is a waste of time. 8 A plan was made, but there was no follow-up, and things did not come to fruition. 9 Some people begin to feel that their position in the company is precarious. 10 The company's sales are growing, but its profits are not growing. 1.People feel like they don't have enough time in the dayOne of the most prevalent pain points in growing an organization is that employees complain that they never have enough time. Employees feel like they don't have enough time to get everything done, even if they can work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They begin to complain about being overburdened, stressed, and both individuals and departments feel like they are always on track but never able to catch up. The more work you do, the more things you do, leading to a never-ending cycle. People feel as if they are running on a treadmill. 
The same topic of growing pains shows that companies lack or have poorly developed planning systems, lack of formal structures (in which roles and responsibilities are clearly defined), or people don't understand how to manage their time effectively. It may also indicate that the company does not have sufficient and appropriate resources to support current and future operations, or that its operating systems are inadequate.
2.People spend a lot of time on "fighting fires".The second pervasive growth pain point shows,Too much time is spent dealing with short-term crises. This problem is often triggered by a lack of long-term planning, especially a lack of strategic planning. Inadequate or weak operating systems can also have an impact on growing pains. For example, when the system does not produce accurate and timely information for managers to use in decision-making, there may be many "fires that need to be extinguished". This growing pains may also stem from an inherent tendency in corporate culture to reward those who put out fires while those who plan are not. Individual employees and the organization as a whole live one day at a time and never know what to expect, which leads to a loss of productivity, organizational effectiveness, and efficiency in the company.
Top managers reward middle managers for their ability to handle crises. When managers who were once effectively "fire preventing" are visibly neglected, some of them become "arsonists" to attract the attention of top management. These "arsonists" set the fire and extinguished it immediately to show their contribution to the organization.
3.A lot of people don't know what other people are doingPeople are increasingly confused about the exact nature of their work and the interrelationship between their work and that of other colleagues. This has created a situation where people and their departments go their own way and say that other work is "outside their purview". As there is a constant wrangling between colleagues and departments over responsibilities, organizations can become isolated and sometimes conflicting factions.
These problems are often caused by a lack of formal structures, including organizational charts and well-defined roles and responsibilities. Relationships between colleagues, departments, and personal responsibilities can be blurred. People are frustrated by ambiguous definitions of responsibilities and begin to define their own roles in a way that may not always be in the best interest of the company. The general manager of one of our client companies vividly describes this phenomenon: "We are a small group of offices working according to their goals, and we don't think about what is good for the company as a whole. ”
Siloing departments can lead to duplication of work, or work that goes undone because that's "someone else's job." Disputes between departments can also arise over areas of influence and organizational resources.
4.There is a lack of understanding of where the company is headedEmployees may complain about the "lack of identity of the company," accusing upper management of not providing enough information about the future direction of the company, or worse, believing that upper management does not know what the direction is. The problem may be that top management does not agree on the future direction of the company, or there are communication barriers.
As is often the case with growing businesses, employees are starting to feel anxious about the lack of communication and the dramatic changes that come with it. To alleviate anxiety, they either set up their own networks to get the information they want, or they start to believe that they know the direction of the company, and even management hasn't really communicated that information at this time. In a company, employee speculation, as well as real information from people close to top management, circulate through the company's informal channels. Rumors are rife and very few people actually understand why those changes were made. As a result, employees are extremely anxious. If anxiety rises to unbearable levels, employees may start to leave. It should be noted that this type of personnel change can be costly for the organization.
The underlying factor behind this growing pains is likely to be poor strategic planning. The organization's planning process is either inappropriate or inadequate, or the planning is not communicated effectively across the organization.
5.There are too few "good" managersWhile there may be a lot of people in a company with the title of "manager", there aren't many good managers. Managers may complain about accountability, and employees may complain about a lack of direction or a lack of feedback from their bosses. Managers of an organization may notice that some business units or departments are significantly more or less productive than others. Managers are also frustrated, and managers have been complaining that they don't have time to focus on managing their teams or departments because there is too much technical work to do. If some or all of the above happens, it means that something is really wrong with the organization's management function.
These issues indicate that companies are failing to properly define managers' job responsibilities or provide adequate training to ensure that managers in these roles have the skills they need to perform their job responsibilities effectively.
Management problems can also be rooted in actual or so-called organizational constraints that prevent managers from exercising their authority. In a company, the public perception that only top leaders can make decisions can have a significant impact on the effectiveness of middle and junior managers. In such companies, managers are described as "people with no real responsibilities".
6.Everyone felt "if I want to do things right, I have to do it myself".There is a growing feeling that it is difficult to get things done with an organization, and that if you want to do something, you have to do it yourself. The reason behind this growing pains is often a lack of clear definitions of roles, responsibilities and the relationships between them. It can also be caused by a lack of resources (not enough people or the right people to do it) or managers who have little control (or are unwilling to control) the effectiveness of others' work.
As discussed earlier, without a clear definition of roles and responsibilities, individuals or departments may be left to their own devices because they do not know who is responsible for a particular task. They may also complete tasks themselves to avoid conflicts, as the person or department they want to delegate to a responsibility may refuse to accept it.
Operating under this philosophy becomes increasingly siloed between departments, with little teamwork. Each part of the company does its own thing, and the overall interests are not considered. The efficiency of communication between the management and the lower-level employees of the organization, as well as between departments, may be minimized, because the organization does not have a formal system to keep information flowing up and down. Lack of interregional cooperation can lead to inefficiency.
7.Most people feel that having a meeting is a waste of timeGrowing organizations recognize the need to improve coordination and communication, and they start meetings. Unfortunately, in many companies, these meetings are at best a group of people discussing, with no planned agenda and often no designated meeting leader. Attendees can answer their phones, check their emails, "work" on their computers, whisper to the sidelines, and do many other things that have nothing to do with the content of the meeting. Meetings are laissez-faire, time drags and lengths, decisions are rarely made, and the same agenda is discussed over and over again. As a result, people get frustrated and conclude that "we're wasting time in meetings."
The impact of ineffective meetings is enormous. For example, a family earns 1Top executives of a $500 million technology company were busy for five days and still couldn't decide on a strategic plan.
Why?Each day of the meeting was constantly interrupted by a "crisis of the day" and required at least one team member to leave the meeting for a considerable amount of time to deal with the problem. Top management is constantly checking their emails and can't focus on what is being discussed. When each senior manager came back to the discussion, the others had to take the time to help them understand what was going on. Every senior executive has specific issues to discuss, and they neither listen nor focus on ongoing issues, but only want to discuss their own issues.
As a result, discussions jumped from one topic to another and resolutions were limited. After the 5-day meeting, 3 months passed, and when the management team decided that the plan was already ok, it was really just because they didn't have time to refine it anymore.
Other complaints about meetings include a lack of follow-up on meeting decisions. Some companies hold annual planning meetings or monthly planning meetings to map out the overall goals of their employees, departments, and the company. If people ignore or fail to monitor the progress of achieving their goals, then these meetings are a waste of time.
8.A plan was made, but there was no follow-up, and things didn't come to fruitionAs the organization grew, company leaders realized the need for a formal strategic and operational planning process and began to do so. Unfortunately, people may have made plans many times, but they never work out. In one striking case, an organization's plan was not tracked because it was stuffed into a drawer and stored in the drawer for a whole year until a new plan came in the following year. When asked about the plans made, one of the top managers said, "Oh, that's in my desk." I never looked at it again. ”
Sometimes, there is no follow-up on planning because the company has not developed a system in place (i.e., a performance management system) to align with goals and monitor progress.
In other cases, follow-up is not done because people are not well trained to set, monitor and evaluate the implementation of goals. The goals set are either unattainable or not measurable.
9.Some people start to feel like they have an unstable position in the companyThe growing pains of an organization also include the fact that employees begin to feel precarious about their position in the company. Sometimes, entrepreneurs (if they are still in the company) become increasingly anxious about the problems in the organization and hire "heavyweight" managers from outside. This move may be accompanied by the termination of the contract with one or more existing managers at the same time. Employees are anxious, in part, because they don't understand the reasons for these changes and other changes.
If anxiety is excessive, it can lead to ethical issues or too rapid turnover of people. Employees also feel insecure because they don't see the value of their role to the company. This phenomenon occurs when the roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined, and terminations can also occur. Employees are also beginning to wonder if they will be the next to be fired. In order to protect themselves, people work in secret and keep a low profile, which leads to estrangement between each other and less efficient teamwork.
The entire department began to endure isolation to protect itself from being cleaned up. This leads to a certain level of ** among employees.
10.The company's sales are growing, but profits are not growingIf all the other growing pains have occurred, then this last symptom may also appear. In some cases, sales continue to grow while profits remain unstable, so companies have been increasing their workload. In the worst-case scenario, sales are growing and overall profits are actually declining, and the company starts losing money without knowing why. Even if sales increase, the company's losses can be quite severe.