Scaling Up, Down and Sideways

1. People First
Stand up, reach out, and connect. Communicate clearly, consistently, and often. Be as transparent as possible with easy to understand messages that cascade throughout the organizations in different forms. Always provide a safe space for Q&A. People will feel better and do better work.

2. Mitigate Critical Risks
Assemble a steering committee of 4-6 key leaders with diverse perspectives and system-wide approach who can drill down to understand, and take responsibility for, how and why current norms, organizational structures and operational processes were created. Manage critical risks and implement risk controls without judgment to get maximum support.

3. Strengthen Processes
Clarify roles and accountabilities to address specific operational processes that hinder remote work and/or create risk for the business. It’s a simple thing but it’s hard to do. Focus on fine-tuning existing processes that scale better until a longer-term IT solution can be implemented.

4. Learn from the All-Remote World
Think plug and play. To the maximum extent possible, capture and document all repeatable processes and process knowledge in a format that is readily accessible and easily understood without one-to-one communication. Even in draft form, documented desk procedures and process knowledge, minimize key person risk.

5. Invite Feedback…and Listen
Leaders’ immediate challenge is to understand the interconnectedness and ripple effects of decisions made to support newly remote work. Give people an opportunity to provide valuable feedback and … listen to it. Not only do people appreciate being heard, their innovative ideas have the potential to strengthen processes and avoid the little thing that becomes the big thing.

The steps in this simple Framework to Meet the Scaling Challenge reduce risk, strengthen culture and processes, and smooth the runway for accelerating at the end of this tunnel.