Don’t Let Scale Wobble™ Slow Your Company’s Growth
What is Scale Wobble™?
Have you ever seen a video of a high speed motorcycle that suddenly starts to lose control? The front wheel starts to wobble uncontrollably and the rider must react with absolute precision or risk a glorious wipeout.
It’s not too unlike what can happen with high-growth companies. Losing control—or Scale Wobble™, as I like to call it—occurs when a company’s revenue and size grow, but its culture doesn’t maintain the same trajectory. This separation point is the dreaded phase I refer to as Scale Wobble™.
There are three main components of Scale Wobble™ :
- Revenue
- Headcount
- Culture
Ideally, these three components grow together, but really—they don’t naturally cooperate.
Revenue & Headcount Growth
Consider the natural alignment of revenue and headcount. As a company starts to enjoy success, more customers come onboard, revenue increases and then more employees are hired to run the organization. Revenue simply allows the organization to afford the increase in headcount (and it’s also a necessity).
Company Culture Goes Flat (or Declines)
Assuming you have a strong culture (hint: this should absolutely be a priority), the risk of maintaining that culture starts to water down as you increase staff. The tight-knit groups and relationships become diluted and the original chemistry of your smaller organization begins to break down.
If you’re not familiar with the Five Stages of Decline from Jim Collins’ book, How the Mighty Fall, I recommend it.
Declining Employee Engagement Can/Will Happen
Careful, It’s Contagious!
Scale Wobble™ starts to happen when the revenue and headcount trajectories begin to separate from the strength (or pulse) of the culture. Granted, the “strength” of your culture is not easy to measure, but let’s just say if your employees are excited to come to work everyday, employee engagement is high and they still believe that their work matters—your culture is largely intact. The strength of your culture is not, however, equal to your definition of it.
You do not want to define your ideal culture then set it and forget it (you’ll be doomed). Instead you’ll want to nurture it, encourage it and be very aware of its strength. Scale Wobble™ starts slow, but quickly spreads when the first team member falls out of alignment with the company’s core values (you do have those, right?). As that first person falls “ill”, they begin to take others down. Company growth slows, employees become disengaged, turnover increases. The front wheel of your motorcycle has just started to shimmy.
But, Our Growth Strategy is Sound
Why should we be worried?
The question you may be asking yourself is, “Should we be worried about getting Scale Wobble™?” Like so many other least favorite answers, this one really depends on a few factors.
First, you have to be susceptible or vulnerable to the condition. If your organization is still young and experiencing growth, you are definitely “at risk”. Alternatively, if you’ve been around for a bit and things are slow and steady, you don’t have much to worry about (other than potentially being stagnant, but that’s another discussion).
Mind the Health of Your Company Culture
Early Diagnosis
There are several methods for checking the strength of your culture. Surveys are certainly one way, but if they’re not anonymous, fear might prevent the necessary truth from coming out. Frequent one-on-ones, peer or 360 reviews can be extremely helpful to get a sense of how everyone’s doing. If productivity is dipping or things seem “off”, this is a leading indicator of Scale Wobble™ .
Beware of counterfeit behavior! If employees are saying one thing, but feeling another (e.g. pretending to be “all in” with your culture), hang on tight to your handlebars because wobble is imminent.
Prevention is the Best Medicine
Yes, it’s easier said than done, but if you truly value the culture and embrace the positive impact your employees will have when the culture is strong, you’ll understand that prevention is critical to your success as the company scales. When growth and culture remain in alignment, there is no Scale Wobble™ and it’s glorious.
It’s hard to maintain culture at scale. We get that. That’s why each organization, department, team should be a “Mini Me” of your overall culture. Strong leadership at every level must be aligned and supporting the culture. Leaders need to be genuine and always listening to their employees. When all these subcultures work in harmony with the rest of the organization, your culture remains strong. Fix your culture (please make it a priority) and don’t become road rash.
Scale Wobble™ is a trademark of Dart Metrics, LLC
