Longtime readers may recognize these authors from my previous reviews about Rework and Remote. Their latest release is a blueprint for how to structure a calm company, one that rejects the frenzied attributes often counted among the necessary evils of the modern workplace.
The book's insights into growth were a microcosm of the work's broader message - without careful maintenance, a calm company can quickly descend into chaos. For Fried and Hansson, growth is one risk factor for such a deterioration. The mundane reality of a small company often obscures the threat of growth. A small organization naturally maintains independence among teams because the volume of work generally allows each unit to complete projects without relying on another group. As the organization grows, the company redesigns itself to handle work at scale. This process almost always means specialization, which creates dependencies among teams. The result is that unexpected issues delay the work of not just the team directly impacted by the issue - it delays the work of all subsequent teams in the workflow. The consequence of these dependencies is rushed jobs to make up lost time ahead of a deadline, which corrodes morale due to both the increased workload density in busy periods as well as the loss of flexibility in completing the work.
The authors offer a handful of suggestions for avoiding such a mess. One idea is to slow (or stop) growth whenever teams are exchanging too much independence for the return of scaling up. Another is to grow via iteration - one example is to offer the newest versions of products only to incoming customers, which skirts the possibility of alienating existing customers who are happy with their current product. A suggestion taking a slightly different tone is to simply remain profitable throughout the growth period (which is timely suggestion in this age when many companies pursue growth for its own sake, running up huge losses in the process). Profit helps the mentality within an organization because employees will be less likely to link growing pains with job security, knowing that no matter how bad it gets at least the company can still afford to retain the team.
TOA Rating: Three growth spurts out of four.
