Birthday reflections: Building a case for meaning in growth

Is it possible to plot meaning alongside growth? This year I have questions with a goal of having answers for next year.

Build and grow

My fortieth year has been characterised with building and growth, only some of which is my own doing and none due to my efforts alone.  Case in point, the rebuild after the Queensland floods of early 2011 which consumed Theresa’s world for the past twelve months as she acted as owner/builder for both the refurbishment as well as the 130 square metre flood-proof second-story expansion.  Thanks to her efforts, I now look around daily at the testament of my wife’s resourcefulness, tenacity, dedication, and artistic talent.

As for other personal achievements, I became an Australian citizen this past year to be more of an active participant in the community I now call home.  The My Pizza Personality project was published, adding ‘contributing author’ as a bullet point for my bio.  I also completed my second Flash animation for Dam by Alice in Chains as a testament to both the reason why I got into digital and why I do animation only as a side interest.

Business talk

Growth is a consistent topic in my studio as well. We expanded to 27 and then gradually again to 32 team members during the two years prior.  As we continue the trend towards 55 staff, I am conscious of the “bounce factor” of organisational growth.

Only 11.5% of Australian businesses are over 19 employees and less than 1% over 200 employees.  Once you get past 4 employees, your survival chances increase from 67% to 74% and increase marginally again to almost 76% if you have over 20 employees.  While the majority of business (89.5%) remain at their current size, 5.6% of businesses are more likely to decrease in numbers while 4.9% of companies are likely to increase in size. You can infer from these statistics that larger organisations are more likely to succeed, but companies have a greater tendency towards retraction rather than expansion.

I can attest that systems, processes, structures and behaviour that were marginally suitable for 15 people become wholly inappropriate and unacceptable for a company twice the size. Sustainability and success of growth can be measured by the gap between when they increased in size and how long it takes to implement  internal systems to support the growth.  If you rely too long on what helped get you to where you are, you may not get where you are going.

Case in point, some of the changes seen in the studio over the past 12 months include:

• a re-structure into self-managed teams;
• establish dedicated project management structures in key accounts;
• outsource recruitment and operational HR functions to free up internal management efforts;
• re-define roles and accountability structures across the organisation; and
• embrace agile project management principles supported by internal systems.

Searching for meaning in the growth

In the midst of the growth, I continue my search for meaning behind our commercial mandate and determining what “success” looks like.  Initially mentioned last May in my search for a “so that”, my questions have been expressed as I explored:

• the reason behind high project failure rates,
• the inadequacy and appropriateness of “n-step” change models,
• the search for meaning behind change,
• the search for Firms of Endearment,
• empowerment through mastery, purpose and autonomy, and
• ways to embrace peak experiences in our workplace.

I shared how the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon could be seen as a similar albeit misdirected expression of similar questioning.  My posts on burnout and energy management were both observations on the world I see around me as well as my challenges with maintaining balance. As I look to what kind of organisations we “should” be creating, I begin to compile attributes of what makes organisations a success, including accountability, gratitude, and generosity.

My views on meaning and purpose on management principles carry through to my approach towards the digital expression of my day job. Over the past year I considered:

• the demise of the CDs,
• the recording of all that can be known through internet video,
• maintaining identity through mapping a social media taxonomy,
• the meaninglessness of Foursquare,
• how social media acts as narrative psychology, and
• our search for significance in the Internet.

Just as we saw in physical and organisational science during the industrial revolution, a growth in the digital space needs to consider people not technology as the common denominator.  Achieving “more” of digital is empty unless the solution has meaning for those who use it.

The year ahead – change

As I get older, I become increasingly aware of my own mortality and the time remaining to make a difference with what I have been given. I see that difference as being more than increasing staff numbers, revenue, profit, same store sales, Facebook like counts, or Twitter followers. I question whether we will achieve such goals only to turn around and  discover we are in the unsustainable position of being the same, only bigger.

I blog about the kind of world I wish to create.  I search for the best means to effect the change I want to see in the organisations I am involved with as well as in the lives of those I interact with.  I also consider the premise that change rarely starts without pain of some form.

My focus for the past several years has been on searching and learning, facilitated in part with my Masters of Applied Social Science (Management) finishing this September.  Once my studies are out of the way, my intent is to shift from preparing to doing, from theory to application.  I look forward to sharing with you the meaning behind the change we will see over the next twelve months.