According to Ichak Adizes, organizations have lifecycles. That is, they go through cycles or stages as they age. Some have long lifetimes and others end shortly after being created. What are the factors that make a new business succeed or fail?
Clearly a simple answer is of little value, since the complexity of any organization regardless of size eliminates any chance of simple or clear cut answers. Nonetheless, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to figure it out and come up with a strategy or approach that minimizes these failures.
Back to Adizes. He says “Organizations go through the normal struggles and difficulties accompanying growth and are faced with the transitional problems of moving from one phase of development to the next. Organizations learn to deal with these problems by themselves or they develop abnormal ‘diseases’ that stymie growth. These are problems that usually cannot be resolved without professional external intervention.”
Sounds like a marriage in trouble, yes? In fact, there is a great deal of truth and meaning in Adizes’ comments. Actions that are healthy and productive in the early stages of a start-up could very quickly become institutionalized in a manner that eventually harms the organization because of internal and external changes.
Take for example using friends and family to save cash. This works well if you are small enough, but as your organization matures, you must have the ability to treat employees like employees. You need to be able to discipline, direct, praise, reward, and yes, even terminate. This doesn’t work so well with a spouse, cousin, aunt, etc.
So the point is, what is going to be happening in your organization over the coming months and years is 100% predictable. Yes, that’s right, 100%. I’m not saying you can’t control or change it, but it’s all right there for you if you take the time to step back and look. You know the saying, work on your business, not in it?
Stay tuned for more on this subject. In the near future, I will be posting an assessment tool to help.
Good selling!
April 27, 2010 at 8:37 pm |
Two observations … excessive spelling errors – counted seven. Also, it might help to identify Adizes …maybe unknown to many readers. A bit of background or a footnote to establish him as an authority would be useful …but why organizations fail is a good topic with broad appeal.