Starting Up: Are you Agile or Do you suffer from ADD?

The beginning of a startup is always an idea. It’s coupled with a belief that this idea has insane potential. As founders, we’re so passionate about our idea that we’re willing to bet our blood, sweat and money on it with no assurance of returns.

The beginning of a startup is also almost always chaotic. The journey of transforming an idea into a reality is undoubtedly fraught with uncertainty and strategies that evolve at the drop of a hat. The adage, change is constant, sometimes feels like it was written with us in mind.

Think about it. We have limited resources in terms of both money and manpower. Marketing and sales strategies, especially at the early stages are a game of trial and error. You literally never know what you’re going to hit gold with (if at all)! The need to play around with even the best laid plans and reallocate resources arises almost every other day.

Startup founders take pride in their agility. Investors appreciate it too. After all, they want their founders to be able to pivot quickly to cut losses. The media and public perception also aggrandizes the lack of structure in early stages and people quit the “rigid corporate world” to join startups to enjoy creative freedom and flexibility.

But… When does this state of constant change become too much? At what stage does this start looking like commitment issues or even an attention deficiency disorder?

Trust me, it happens to the best of us!

There comes a point where founders need to evaluate whether this constant flux is really required. It perhaps comes when you’ve been at it for a few months, or sometimes even a few years. It comes when you have a team whom you need to lead and inspire. It definitely comes when you find yourself plateauing and not seeing the growth you expected.

When you find that either of these things have happened, it’s important to take a step back and ask yourself a few questions and answer them in the most honest way possible. In fact, I recommend that if you’re squeamish about any of these questions, it’s time to take a cold, hard look at the way you’re running your business!

1.     Are you looking at the bigger picture? When you are pre-revenue, all founders are completely about the vision. You’re focused on making your dream into a reality and you try to be as true to the dream as possible. The moment you get paying customers, the focus shifts to customer service, operations and primarily, damage control! Are you as founders dedicating enough time to the big picture? There can be no growth without it!

2.     Are you following through? It’s important to commit to any strategy that you begin to implement. Commitment means detailed tracking of implementation and its results. It means giving each strategy enough time and enough of a chance. Are you giving up too quick?

3.     Is your team’s performance trackable? If you keep pulling your entire team into whatever latest crisis your facing, you’re distracting them from the main tasks that you hired them for. This results in ambiguity in what they’re supposed to deliver and therefore a lot of grey area in terms of what they’re supposed to do. That’s a major F*up. If they don’t know what they’re meant to do, they’re not going to do it.

The fact of the matter is that large corporations work a certain way for a reason. There is a need for processes as you grow. There is a need to build in tracking and reporting structures. The fact of the matter is also that the agility that we take pride in can also be used to introduce this structure. Even if processes and structure is not how the world perceives how startups should work.

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