Why You Should Stop Trying to Make Your Organization Bigger

Bigger isn’t better. Better is better.

An implicit burden upon leaders seems to focus upon making things bigger. Growth is at once an objective, goal, strategy and tactic. Leaders are expected to grow stuff.

When I walk into a convention of pastors, one of the first questions I will be asked is about the size of the congregation I serve. Actually, whenever I told ANYone I was a pastor, the next question had to do with the size of the congregation.

I was never asked a question about quality.

I’ve attended many conventions for McDonalds and other quick service or fast casual restaurant owner meetings. I’ve attended large gatherings of television station operators. I’ve attended too many academic “show and tell meetings.” I’ve been a keynote speaker at automobile dealership meetings, newspaper association meetings, radio station owner meetings and magazine association conventions.

At every meeting of every type of gathering I can remember, the question of size was always the leading question.

I was never asked a question about quality.

Roy D. Mercer was quick to ask, “How big an ol’ boy are you anyway?” Roy never asked his listeners about the quality of their character.

The size of an organization implies that quality has already been achieved. But if you’ve led an organization for more than a minute, you already know that quality production is easier to achieve in smaller organizations.

I’ve often felt that every time I added an employee to an organization, we reduced our quality of output. 

It takes a lot of time to teach new hires how to do excellent work.

As an organization grows in complexity, it becomes more difficult to decentralize excellence. Many organizations have excellent boards and high-level executive teams.

The tipping point comes in the effective transfer of quality standards.

It’s easier for a small group to work well together to change an industry and the world. Complexity breeds normative thinking and output.

Small organizations focus upon being better than the big guys. When better begins to occur, growth happens. And when growth happens, better begins to dissipate, if more growth becomes the rallying cry.

Jesus focused His team on Jerusalem prior to Judea or the uttermost.

Jesus taught us to make disciples. Disciples are made by personal relationships. Jesus had His crowds but He saw them as individuals.

We cannot grow so large that we miss an opportunity to help just one.

That’s better.

Today’s Scripture

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

NOODLING

Here’s something I’m trying or thinking about today …

The Consumer Electronics Show opens tomorrow! I can’t wait to see what I’ll be adopting early.

Platform Tip No. 34

You may have a powerful platform but if few people know about it, your message becomes a well-kept secret.

Secrets don’t help anyone. 

Platform marketing has never been as easy as it is today. Awareness marketing has never been so inexpensive and effective.

The problem is that most platform hosts want their audience to grow fast. Whatever is achieved quickly is probably fleeting.

Show up on-platform every day. Market for the long run. Don’t be a secret.

Do you want to learn more about developing your personal platform?

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