When more is not better!

After 35 years working in business and several now in the coaching and speaking world supporting businesses, I can attest to the fact that more is not always better. The more I am referring to is more objectives, more departmental initiatives, and more systems and programs.

As organizations grow and expand, it is no longer possible for the "founding few" to continue to drive all the key aspects of the organization. It is necessary to bring on individuals to take responsibility and leadership roles for these key functions. The key functions could be human resources, accounting, marketing, sales, sustainability, compliance, or any number of others functions that all organizations deal with at varying degrees of complexity.

The challenge for any organization is to find a way to ensure these key functions are done well while not distracting from the purpose, vision, or direction of the organization. I have seen many instances of these functional units within an organization becoming so large that they become an organization within themselves.

When a functional unit becomes an organization, it oftentimes starts setting its on goals, agendas, and focus. With skilled, ambitious leadership, this functional unit organization may strive to be "world-class" or "high-level" within their field of focus. As such, they will expand their level of influence, scope of work, and requirements of others. In some cases, they are now more of a machine to be fed than a supporting role to the main organization.

If an organization starts to get too many of these functional units morphing into "mini organizations" within the framework of the company, it's not long until there are multiple agendas, increased layers of reporting, and added complexity to the original organization's business strategy and model. When this change happens, the machine takes over and everything starts to slow down. Alignment becomes a challenge, decision making becomes a negotiation, costs go up, and frustration sets in for many involved.

No one intends for any of these issue to arise. Everyone has good intentions. Key leaders in each of the units generally want to contribute, perform at a high level, and be viewed as a top influencer. The problem lies not with desire, but rather with direction. Direction, not desire, will ultimately determine destination. The destination of getting bigger may not be what was intended!

The organization may not need world class functional units in and of themselves. The organization likely needs world class business partners supporting the organization's purpose, vision, and direction. These business partners will oversee their respective areas with the sole intent of working together to support the organization and one another.

The organization's goals are their goals. There is no program, project, or system that is not vetted by all to ensure it is supportive of the entire organization. These functional units should never become silo's for division or empires for power. Functional unit leaders should consider simple, lean approaches to supporting the organizational needs as business partners with no other agendas.

The organizations that can think big but act small are the ones that maintain alignment, control overhead costs, execute at a high level, and create the most desirable work environments. These work environments are ones of collaboration not competition. They are cultures of engagement not silos of entitlement. The are energy producers not drainers.

One way to ensure your organization maintains the organizational focus throughout all functional units is to have one set of goals and objectives for all business partners regardless of their role. While roles may be functionally specific, the job descriptions are broad in scope but narrowly focused on organizational success. Alignment is key, and functionality in role should support not detract from organizational strength.

If you aren't sure whether this message hits home for you or not, take some time and ask your front-line folks. What are they telling you? Take a look at the key initiatives posed by each of the functional units. What are you seeing? Look at the complexity of your organizational chart. How many layers have been created to solve a problem, to handle increased workload, or to coordinate functional unit cooperation?

You might just discover structural opportunities within your organization that need to be addressed for you to return to your optimum operating level and to achieve the results you are capable of achieving. Sometimes, bigger is not better. Sometimes, more is not better!