Finding the Goldilocks zone for team processes

Being dependent on a superstar is dangerous. They can leave. They can get hit by a scooter. Or the market can change such that their super powers aren’t quite on point anymore. And even if things stay fine, a process that’s dependent on an individual’s super powers isn’t scalable. Every parent who’s coached football coach knows that “Let’s all make sure we get the ball to Tom” stops being a winning game plan some time during high school. A reliance on superstars is probably the most common impediment to growth that I see in initially fast-moving businesses.

So when we are serious about growth, we are always looking for defined process: ‘How our teams do things here to win’. The other great thing about a defined process is that we can tweak it systematically and measure the results.

“The blogs and gurus he consulted all declared that the phone is dead as a channel. But retailers pick up their phones.”

Bigger businesses can have the opposite problem, where rigid processes are eminently scalable, but no longer optimised for capturing maximum value. Consultants have put in place best practice processes, or an exec has brought them with her from a previous role. However even the best rules of thumb can miss nuances in your business that make all the difference.

A friend of mine runs a business whose products are used by retailers. The blogs, bestselling business books and gurus he consulted all declared that the phone is dead as a channel. But retailers pick up their phones. It turns out many of his killer sales processes centre on phone calls. Against all the rules, another client won by deploying PhDs in their first-line customer response team.

The sweet spot is the Goldilocks Zone — not too textbook, not too bespoke. You need best practices, but ones that are tailored to your environment, industry, customer norms and culture. Running textbook ideas and existing processes past a cross-functional slice of your team (with incentives to succeed) is a great way to start down this path. We’ll talk more about how to tap the goldmine of insight resting in your team in a future post.