Flood Zones and Wind Tunnels

Flood Zones is an apt description for those periods where there is an abundance of work and never enough staff to get it all done. Wind Tunnels describes those periods where management methods and tools that used to work, are no longer effective.

One or the other of these periods, according to James Fischer in his excellent book, Navigating the Growth Curve, typically occurs as growing companies approach the 10, 19, 34, 57, 95 and 160 employee mark.

The need to invest in new management or supervisor roles occurs precisely when the company is at its busiest and most productive - in a Flood Zone. Management often waits too long, makes hasty decisions, and puts people into roles they are not properly prepared for. 

The way to avoid the costs associated with those mistakes is to have talented individuals identified before the flood hits.  And, have them prepared for their new role before they assume it.

I recommend companies track productivity in ways that tell the most accurate story (rev and/or profit per employee, rev and/or profit per labor hour, etc.).  A good productivity graph that shows historical results can also be projected into the future allowing for some analysis. "What happens if our business grows faster than we expect?"  "What happens if we lose a key customer and shrink by 10%?"  "When will we need to add people or when must we cut?"    

Having identified triggers for when you need to add a supervisor or manager and planning for the short-term productivity impact in order to prepare for longer-term productivity gains allows management to identify and train those new supervisors and managers before they are needed.

Without a productivity target, owners and managers may get addicted to artificially high productivity numbers and ignore the risks associated with working the team too hard, for too long.

Manager response to Wind Tunnels is similar.  These also typically occur during periods of growth, which is the hardest time to reorganize the company, redesign work flows or implement new technologies.  It takes a lot of discipline (and confidence) to reorganize, reengineer or invest in new technologies when business is flat, but it is a lot easier to execute a plan in a Wind Tunnel if that plan was well-designed during less turbulent times.