Process Development During Growing Pains

Fire fighting mode is never a fun position to be in, but sometimes, that is the situation in which we find ourselves. You come to work, and it seems like all you do from 9 to 5 is to fight fires. One problem after another arises, and after a while, the measure of a successful day seems to be looking back and being satisfied that you had only a few fires that you didn’t seem to put out.

As a business moves towards maturity there will be growing pains where things are in crisis. This is not necessarily a problem, because it is a part of the expected life cycle. Even mature businesses will face crises, but these crises will be mitigated by a mature approach (unless, of course, lesser, inexperienced leadership has assumed charge, and then the odds are that you will find yourself in a significant bind).

The point here is that growing pains will happen and they are not necessarily anyone’s fault. The important takeaway, though, should be that how you handle them will by and large help determine how long they last, as well as if you are able to take things successfully to the next level. Failure to overcome growing pains will likely mean that the business will regress. While it will likely be able to regain its losses, until it is able to overcome the issues that have caused the growing pains, progress forward is impossible.

This is where clear process development can be invaluable. Growing pains crises occur when the business is growing and existing infrastructure is no longer able to handle the strain. Sometimes, forethought and careful planning might be able to handle these issues, but at the end of the day, the likelihood is that the growing pains that will be experienced have to be worked through in order to be fully addressed. At this point, the best thing to do from a process perspective is to do an internal SWOT analysis. It would look something like this:

Strengths: What are the areas in which your business excels operationally? 

Weaknesses: Where do the bottlenecks and breakdowns occur that cause operations to grind to a halt?

Opportunities: What are potential improvements that would address these weaknesses?

Threats: What are the threats that are being created by your weaknesses?

A philosophy that would be worth advocating here would be to lack weaknesses. Improving your strengths is something that is worth pursuing, but remember, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If you can find a way to lack weaknesses, you won’t need to over compensate with strengths, thereby helping your processes to even out significantly.

One point that is worth making is that with opportunities, it is quite possible that technological implementations or upgrades might help here. AI has been a game changer, and as time goes on, apps come out with upgrades and new tools. However, when trying to use technology to address issues, do not force things. If they are a good fit, then move forward, but if you feel the need to reinvent how your business operated to accommodate the new tech, I would advise against it, since you might find yourself in a situation where the tail is wagging the dog.

One final point that is crucial here is for startups moving towards maturity. During the start up phase, a great deal of creativity and ingenuity is needed. However, as you move forward, view the business as an ocean liner. The more successful you are in building your business, the bigger it becomes. By necessity, it becomes less flexible. You might think that as an owner you can do what you want to do, but such an attitude can be incredibly destructive long term. You might find yourself one day back to where you started because your business shipwrecked because you felt like you could do what you wanted. Be willing to submit yourself to the processes you create. At the end of the day, this will help you in the long run.