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Mar
26
The Right Size
Filed Under Brad Works
Seth Godin wrote a great post yesterday about finding the right size for your team/organization. It’s something I think about a lot, for the variety of hats I wear.
Seth suggests that the reason many businesses are in trouble these days is because “they’re the wrong size.” “A newspaper that only had a few dozen employees would be doing great today. But they have hundreds or thousands of employees because that was an appropriate scale twenty years ago.”
At Foursquare, we just went through another “reduction in workforce.” Between last year’s layoffs and last week’s second round of layoffs, my team has been cut more than half (from 18 people to 8). Re-grouping and re-building—in light of a climate that is understandably low on morale—is absolutely necessary to staying the course. We’re in the middle of seeing our size as an asset, not a setback.
At Personality, we reorganized the entire business model a year ago and it is no longer dependent on full-time centrally located employees. We could have never built what we did without the former model, but we could never do what we’re doing now without the current model. Personality’s future is looking very bright.
At CFCC, the organization is powered by a network of people around the world that believe in the mission. It’s built by the people who benefit from it, and we’re getting ready to roll out some things that will make participation even more accessible to people who want to get involved. CFCC is being structured so that its size and momentum are always running parallel. Too many people without momentum is a packed train heading nowhere meaningful. Too much momentum without any people to carry it is an empty train headed off a cliff.
“It’s tempting to get bigger. But is bigger better? In many cases, it’s worse, particularly when you can leverage reliable systems that are cheaper and faster and more stable in the outside world. If you can make your product better by assembling it yourself, you should. But if that action makes it worse, why do it?”
I’d rather have a small team making a big difference than a big team making no difference.
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4 Responses to “The Right Size”
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I totally agree.
And for what it’s worth, I have loves being a small part of the CFCC through moderating the lab. Thanks for the opportunity.
I wonder if we’re still in a season of shedding the ‘bigger is better’ model. The 80’s and 90’s gave us the church growth paradigm and for it we can be grateful, because a number of wonderful principles emerged. And yet, with it came the idea that we ought to staff for everything and ‘go big or go home.’
I just recently was made lead pastor of an over-1000 member foursquare church that was staffed big. Economic realities have reduced the staff down from approx. 32 to 11. It is tough to have happen but it may very well be a pathway to health (and not just growth). Roles are firmed up, fluff is cut, programs refined, overhead costs reduces, and unity/purpose reestablished. Yes, morale takes a dinger, but it is also an opportunity to link arms and forge ahead with hope.
And oh, I almost forgot, in the local church we have an Ephesians 3 directive to ‘prepare God’s people for works of service’ – a smaller team has to put the focus upon raising up The Body (volunteer servants) – and that is something that can be easily overlooked when the team is large and everyone has got their task taken care of.
Size and scale are critical issues, especially right now. And we have to deal with our teams with compassion and transparency. This is a painful time for lots of folks in all kinds of organizations. I like what you are saying because you aren’t spiritualizing the problem or playing the blame game. You are also on the leading edge because you are developing new technologies and services for the denomination. This period of “creative destruction” is a great time to focus on our core calling and innovate. Blessings on your leadership.
Very important thoughts. I believe the economic necessities are in fact getting us to do the hard work of getting back to the point. I really believe we will see tremendous effectiveness when we get focused. The balance is to always remember how much people matter to God and help them navigate these changing times when they are being so deeply affected by them personally. You model this well, Brad.