The 7 Stages of Growth

Have you ever spent time thinking about the strategies you need to deploy at any given time in the growth or planned growth of your organization? Read on as HPISolutions CEO, Jerry Houston describes the process that helps you to understand what stage of growth your organization is in and where it is headed.

Understanding the 7 Stages of Growth that all organizations experience (presuming they survive!)

James Fischer’s research led to his book called Navigating the Growth Curve, which identified 7 Stages of Growth that entrepreneurial organizations move through. Complexity increases as a company grows and that complexity is created by adding people. The 7 Stages of Growth provides a leader with insight into focusing on the right things at the right time, predicting how growth will impact the organization, and helping leaders to adapt their leadership skills as the company grows.

The 27 Challenges and 27 Strengths

The first layer of alignment is identifying and agreeing to the organization’s top 5 challenges and strengths in their current stage of growth.

The Builder/Protector Ratio

The second layer of alignment is identifying the organization’s ability to balance confidence with caution, in order to walk the fine line between chaos and equilibrium as a company grows.

The Non-Negotiable Rules

The third layer of alignment is identifying the deep and stage-specific issues that must be addressed in order to effectively and profitably move to the next stage of growth.

Strategic Alignment and Critical Initiatives

Addressing all critical issues raised during the assessment and discovery process is essential, then evaluating how they impact the strategic focus of the organization. Finally, through leadership consensus it is necessary to develop the top initiatives that will address critical growth issues not addressed in past stages of growth, as well as issues facing the organization in its current stage of growth.

Intentional Communications

It is important to recognize the critical role communication plays in an organization’s growth and creating a two-step approach that defines who needs to know what, when and how those messages will be distributed.

Creating a Language of Growth

Knowing that an organization moves through different stages of growth and that the areas of impact are “normal” takes the fear out of growth. Taking the mystery out of running a business helps each and every person feel like participating in critical discussions. Being able to express challenges and issues in everyday language makes everyone feel like a valuable stakeholder, broadening their understanding of how their work impacts the organization and recognizing that their contribution improves an organization’s bottom line.

I have been so impressed with the discoveries I learned in this book that I have become certified as a Stages of Growth Strategist and have also engaged this process for my own business! If you would like to learn more, contact us at info@HPISolutions.com.

To Your Success!
Jerry Houston