There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent. Michel de Montaigne, 1533 – 1592
Within our culture, growth is usually considered a good thing – more jobs, more taxes are collected for governments, people buy more and businesses enjoy higher profits. There are also the unpleasant side effects such as busier roads, higher impacts on schools, higher impacts on our environment and through growth, our community may become unrecognizable over time.
That’s one way to look at growth when it comes to an organization. But gee whiz. Growth refers to quite a bit more than that. As an individual, my growth, as measured by me, refers to my bodily health and my mental health. Do I have deeper friendships? Am I working on acquiring another skill (cooking, language, quilting)? Am I giving more of myself to whatever task I am doing? Am I exercising? In short, am I a better person, again as measured by me, than I was before?
Why can’t an organization’s growth follow a similar definition? Is a flat revenue and a flat production cycle bad? Is declining revenue and declining production bad? Maybe – our culuture would ususally answer yes and our stock market would put a big exclamation point behind that yes. But there are different measurements.
Did we spend more time with our customers? Did we figure how to add services without increasing costs? Did our employees think more highly of us? Did our clients think more highly of us? Did we forge stronger vendor relationships? Is the business a more enjoyable place to walk into?
You get the drift. What measurements of growth besides the traditional one of dollar and volume can be used?
There’s a strong correlation between the organization growing through a different set of initiatives than a focus on sales and production. Profit that sustains the business is necessary to long-term health. However, many times the growth of other aspects of the business have more to do with that profit than the traditional measurements.
Grow inwardly and prosper,
Bryan Dear
