Where’s Your Guardrail and What Happens If You Hit It? Finding Comfort During Rapid Growth

Over the past few months, CarLotz has seen tremendous growth: we went public in Q1 of this year and then quickly opened hubs in Seattle, Orlando, Nashville, and Virginia. We then announced that we’ll be opening locations in Bakersfield, Highland Park, Clearwater, Denver, and St. Louis, further expanding our presence in the market. We’re learning a lot from every new opening, with each launching quickly and under budget. Yet despite all of the excitement and success, there have been challenges in managing all of this growth. Not long after we launched in Nashville, we conducted a team survey, and the results were clear: some of our teammates were uncomfortable with certain aspects of the rapid growth and change that we’re experiencing. 

Admittedly, this is understandable: some people naturally have a hard time adjusting to chaos, constant change, rapid growth, and there’s been a LOT of all of this in the past year. But the fact is, change is inevitable. It might seem chaotic at times...perhaps like you’re about to hit the guardrails and maybe so quickly that you’ll fly off the road. But at times like this, you may want to ask yourself, where is the guardrail, and what happens if I hit it?

What’s On The Other Side Of Your Guardrail? 

Something I’ve come to realize is that every business has a set of guardrails that it should endeavor to stay within. Like in real life, guardrails are there to keep you on the right track and protect you from potential dangers. Of course, when you’re moving fast, the chances of hitting the guardrail are much higher. But not all guardrails are created equally. Some are narrower and tighter to the road than others and some have more dangerous obstacles waiting on the other side. 

However, what’s on the other side of your guardrail will depend on what kind of business you run. For example, if you run a pizza shop, your guard rail is fairly wide. Your pepperoni pizza recipe probably calls for about 20 pieces of pepperoni. If your pizza chef puts 28 pieces of pepperoni or 12 pieces of pepperoni, you might have an angry customer, but the chances are small that it will dramatically impact your business. If you’re a surgeon, the guard rail is very tight. Even the slightest mistake could be the difference between life or death, so you need to be precise and accurate at all times. For the pizza maker, the other side of the guard rail is a dirt road: it’s a little bumpy and you might kick up some dust, but the danger is minor. For the surgeon, the other side of the guard rail is a sheer cliff: one wrong move, and it could cost your patient everything. 

Everyone has to properly assess the potential risks that come with their work, even during a period of growth. There are some mistakes that you can afford to make for the sake of growth, but others not so much. At CarLotz, we cannot (and will not) put our team or guests in harmful situations, damage customer experiences, or break the bonds of our integrity. Our guardrails around those aspects of our business are very narrow. But, on the other hand, if some of our furniture doesn’t show up until 3-days after we’re scheduled to open, or the permanent signage isn’t up for our Grand Opening, we will move on and learn from the mistakes that led to the delay. The show must go on!   

Course Correction 

Part of what’s made the last few months work as well as they have is that even when mistakes are made, we’ve used it as an opportunity to get back on course and make smarter decisions going forward. When we launched the first of this year’s new hubs, there were a number of computer issues due to the weather, which grew from a minor moment of chaos into a domino effect that left some teammates stressed. We ran into similar issues during the launch of our most recent hub, with lobby furniture having gone undelivered and some of our required licensing showing up only days before we opened. 

Since then, the project management team has been updating our processes in order to ensure the next opening occurs with fewer hits against the guardrail. For instance, when we ran into the issue with furniture not being ready for the opening, we recognized that we could order furniture earlier - even before we signed the lease. Moving tasks forward or backward in the Gantt Chart allows us to take stress off of teams while still maintaining a solid pace. 

Keeping Your Eyes On What Matters

Even when things are going well, there’s always going to be some amount of chaos when things are in motion. There will ALWAYS be something to worry about the day before opening. But even if you aren’t worried about furniture or computers, you need to be concerned about your team: people can be too scared to make mistakes, especially when there’s so much riding on their actions and they are new to an organization. 

The important thing is to help them see where the guardrails are and let them know what’s on the other side. If the rails are strong or the consequences are minor, then let them know they don’t have to worry so much about making mistakes - just learn from them and move on. If things are more severe, give them the tools and the guidance to mind the rail. Just keep your eyes on the road and don’t lose sight of what matters most!