Predictable Success: Having Fun and Avoiding the Death Rattle

I recently had the pleasure of reading Les McKeown’s book “Predicatable Success – Getting Your Organization on the Growth Track – and Keeping it There”.  Have you read this?

McKeown elegantly describes how every business, whilst unique in some way, go through very distinctive cycles which you can find illustrated on his website here.  The cycles are described as:

Early Struggle: Many businesses go out of business here in this first phase – the main objective, get cash and stay afloat.

Fun: The business gets on its feet, sales become more frequent, focus shifts from get cash to get profitable.  The problem? Too much fun and creativity coupled with not enough systems to manage it all leads to..

Whitewater: This is when things get a bit hairy, the business has had a strong sales focus but systems haven’t kept up and the business potentially starts to lose customers because of lost information and divisions between sales people and service personnel.  If you can get through Whitewater (because you certainly don’t want to stay there) you’ll reach what McKeown describes as:

Predictable Success: This is where things begin to harmonise between systems and creativity.  Processes are built to make sure that new ideas and creative process is followed up by sound, reliable systems (but not too many that the business is overwhelmed by beuaracracy) – sounds like a utopia?  It does, and many businesses don’t reach predictable success because they either lack the training and tools (some of which are provided in the book) or they, for whatever reason, like staying in Fun or Whitewater and drive their company back into those stages again – only to realise it’s not where they want to be.    If you can master predictable success, the art is staying there and this is where McKeown believes many companies often go either way – the negative side of the cycle looks like this:

Treadmill:  It’s easy to come to a conclusion that if systems and processes are what got you to predictable success, then more systems and processes are what will keep you there.  McKeown describes that as almost a fatal mistake that companies make.  The shift to treadmill is where so many systems and processes are in place that creativity is practically sucked dry from the company, if entrepreneurial owners haven’t already sold out (due to their predictable success), they stay around frustrated because the company no longer has the “fun” that it used to.  Employee turnover increases because people feel too restricted, decisions are made through a long and arduous process (if at all) and work life is, well, predictably boring – if companies don’t recognise this, the next near-fatal stage is:

The Big Rut: Now that the company has been sucked dry of its creative people, that there are 7 forms to be filled out and stamped before getting access to the coffee machine and the company hasn’t experienced any growth for some time, the business now finds itself in the big rut.  Sure, the owners may be making money and the business may still be well known – but it has lost its edge and the phrase “can’t see the forest for the trees’” the company is so far into repeat-mode that it can’t see that it is heading toward..

Death Rattle: The author believes Death Rattle is almost certainly the end of a company.  That by the time the business has suffered through the Big Rut that there is little to no hope to recover and ultimately shuts down or is acquired after bankruptcy.  Not a nice way to go is it?

Why does this book interest me?  I think it is a must-read for any business owner trying to figure out where they are headed.  For example, I could look at periods where I Know IT has moved from Fun to Whitewater and back again and now see where we have made adjustments or need to improve.   Knowing where you are in the cycle is an important step to moving toward predictable success.

As I observe our broad spectrum of clients I can see where many have moved from Whitewater through to Predictable Success by adjusting a number of processes – and yes, one of them being IT, to stabilise the company and connect the ideas machine to the process machine.

Take a simple example of a growing company with a single office.  Decisions are made over coffee and lunch, the business is dynamic and full of new ideas – one being the exciting prospect of  opening a new office in another city.  Suddenly though, decisions are being made without certain people involved, and ideas are pushed by email instead of over lunch.  You can see how Fun becomes Frustration and ultimately Whitewater as people feel left out of the process or don’t receive key information.  The company may decide to implement a Skype Webcam in each office so that meetings are held virtually face-to-face, they might implement a SharePoint site and create a company process where employees are encouraged to check the site each week for important changes to the business.  Assumptions aren’t made as to whether a particular employee has that information, it’s published anyway just in case someone is out of the loop.  These sorts of tweaks throughout the Whitewater phase form part of how good systems and processes can lead a company to Predictable Success.

With that in mind, this same company, now in Predictable Success may then decide to turn those webcams on to their employees, recording their daily work habits and implementing an efficiency scale so that employees can compare who works hard and who doesn’t.  Whilst it might be an interesting experiment, you can see how Predictable Success quickly becomes Treadmill and alienates otherwise good, creative people.

One last thought – you might think Predictable Success as a phase might be a little boring, and I think the author has had to work hard on explaining this – it’s far from boring.  Like Fun where things are moving quickly and everything is exciting, companies can’t stay in that mode – try as they might, Fun ultimately leads to Whitewater and lots of problems unless it’s managed appropriately.  Predictable Success means that a strong connection is made between the Entrepreneurial spirit and ideas, and good, sound management practices and business systemes (yes, including IT) so that the people and customer experience is consistent.  Similarly, Predictable Success doesn’t mean the company has no problems, but rather, problems are pre-empted, anticipated and managed before they hit crisis mode.

I found this book incredibly valuable for any CEO, business owner or leadership team.