Rapid Growth is the stage when you need to build out your brand. And it’s the time when you are most vulnerable to high turnover, which translate into major knowledge leakage. And something your competitors will thank you for later.
Hi and welcome to Thursday’s Episode 91 in Season 2 of “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 6th day of August in the summer of 2020.
“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”
Season One and Two are a two-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic and then in this unfolding pandemic year.
Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year
S2 E90 — How Many Road Warriors Does It Take to Fuel Our Growth?; S2 E89 — Garage Bonking and Chasm Jumping; S2 E88 — Convincing Family, Friends, Fools and Angels
Related from Season One, the Normal Year
S1 E91 — If that, then this … ? The daily double?; S1 E90 — Day 90 of My 1-Year Natural Experiment; S1 E89 — Because If You Don’t Someone Else Will. It’s Worth It!; S1 E88 — Who’s Marc Maron and What’s da Vinci got to do with him?
Context
This is a continuation of “Volume Two Manuscript — WorkFit” a work-in-progress.
In a previous episode I summarized everything you need to know about four basic organizations to stack the odds in your favor when shopping around for your next job opportunity.
Oh, what disaster to avoid (unlike me) in your next career move.
Emerging to Rapid Growth
Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2020
Just a quick recap. To bridge the gap between a Start Up to the next stage the venture has to address its Leadership Crisis, or in reality the lack of leadership. The founder is content to grow organically, until, well the company doesn’t grow any more and angel investors may be ready to pull the plug.
To land in Emerging Growth the venture needs to tighten its operations with good old structure.
Stages of Growth
Start Up: Loosen — Leadership Crisis — Tighten
Emerging Growth: Tighten — Functional Crisis — Loosen
Let’s continue by adding to the first five of 16 talent profiles we’ve covered so far.
Where to Find Best Fit
| Talent Profile | Growth Stage | Organization Type |
| 101 Breakpoint Inventors | Start Up | Paradoxy-Morons |
| 103 Commercial Innovators | Start Up | Paradoxy-Morons |
| 105 Marketing Athletes | Start Up | Emerging-Entrepreneurs |
| 107 Resilient Product Teams | Emerging Growth | Emerging-Entrepreneurs |
| 108 Core Business Group | Emerging Growth | Emerging-Entrepreneurs |
Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2020
Rapid Growth is the stage when you want to build out your brand. And it’s the time when you are most vulnerable to high turnover. Which translate into major knowledge leakage.
Rapid Growth: Loosen — Autonomy Crisis — Tighten
Back to that Yin-Yang cycle thingy. The good news up until now was how we resolved the loosey-goosey lack of leadership crisis during Start Up by tightening and structuring operations in the Emerging Growth stage.
But, too much of one thing, like an overuse of a strength creates the next crisis. And the prescription for over-tightening is, you guessed it, loosening by delegating and spreading autonomy around during Rapid Growth.
So if you’re building a “sticky” yet competent talent culture, you want to attract two talent profiles from the third of our organizational types — Sustaining-Associates. If you recall, they are known for a high to medium mix of affiliation, improvement and mastery.
Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2020
111 Agile Tiger Teams thrive on the challenge of doing whatever it takes in high performing teams more than 50% loyal to their team leader. They cultivate extraordinary teamwork as their core competency by emphasizing knowledge sharing in a culture of reciprocity, trust and community values.
112 Loyal Survivalists apply their skills as a marketer, in effect extending individual product brands into an organization known for multiple brands you can trust.
At the rapid growth stage one major challenge is how to make certain the organization sustains past innovations while renewing itself without losing sight of its core identity.
Through their day-to-day behaviors they develop a trust mark that keeps bringing in new and long-term customers back again and again.
So let’s update our career options.
Where to Find the Best Cultural Fit
| Talent Profile | Growth Stage | Organization Type |
| 101 Breakpoint Inventors | Start Up | Paradoxy-Morons |
| 103 Commercial Innovators | Start Up | Paradoxy-Morons |
| 105 Marketing Athletes | Start Up | Emerging-Entrepreneurs |
| 107 Resilient Product Teams | Emerging Growth | Emerging-Entrepreneurs |
| 108 Core Business Group | Emerging Growth | Emerging-Entrepreneurs |
| 111 Agile Tiger Teams | Rapid Growth | Sustaining-Associates |
| 112 Loyal Survivalists | Rapid Growth | Sustaining-Associates |
Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2020
But, wait there’s still more … nine more to be exact.
Evidence
Move along, nothing to see here. For the first time, no relevant TauBits of Wisdom for today.
What’s Going On …
Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll
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- @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines organically grew from 4516 to 4636.
Foresight
Quality-of-Life
Long-Form
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- Saw the movie, didn’t realize that one of my favorite authors, Michael Connelly — his detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch book series and Amazon Prime series — also wrote, “The Lincoln Lawyer” which I just finished. Gotta tell you I can’t not see his lead character (Mickey Haller, Bosch’s half brother) as anyone else but Matthew McConaughey.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate
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