Can you really grow big by…staying “small”? Absolutely! I’ve been hearing frequent comments in the past couple of years since COVID of record growth rates for so many AEC firms. Add to that, many are growing by acquisition more than they ever had in the past. On this surface, this is all good…until it isn’t.

Remember when you started your firm? To get away from all that bureaucracy that was bogging down your larger competitors? Well, here we are. Sure, growth is good (and required) for a lot of reasons. But, left unchecked, growth can be a culture killer. Suddenly, things start moving slower than they used to move. More meetings are happening that don’t involve a single client or project. Policies and procedures start growing like wildflowers.

It is completely normal and natural for firms to become more structured and more risk averse with growth. There comes a size when you need an HR Director and a CFO. There comes a size when you outgrow QuickBooks. But, the unintended consequence is that you lose the firm’s cultural “x factor” that really made your firm different from everyone else…for clients and for employees.

This actual comment from an actual client of a 275-person architecture firm doesn’t need to be your confronted reality…“They’re not what they used to be. They are slower than they used to be and they nickel-and-dime us for everything now.”

The concept of growing big by staying “small” isn’t about a particular size of the firm but rather the mindset of the firm’s leaders…to move quickly, to stay lean, to punch above your weight.

Here are five ways to avoid the culture killers of growth:

1.  Don’t let the org chart run the firm. The unintended consequence of too many org charts is that they create such specificity that they tell people what not to do rather than what to do. If you have secondary dotted lines, it is too complicated.

2. Avoid the desire to create policies for everything. Policies and procedures stifle creativity and speed. Of course, there are the required regulatory policies. Outside of that, wherever you can, spell out guidelines and then empower team members to think and act quickly and decisively.

3. Build talent before you buy it. As a firm gets larger, there is a tendency to get new hires from bigger firms. This can lead to a gradual “group think” or drift towards more bureaucratic thinking. Always choose energy over experience…and build a pipeline of bright emerging talent who are hungry to move up in the firm.

4. Never stop selling. This is less about the need for revenue generation and all about the need to stay close to your clients. That is where you get that first-hand insight into client pain points and opportunities.

5. Schedule meetings with yourself. Scheduling a team meeting can be an easy alternative to making a decision. Don’t do it! Instead, schedule time alone to review, think, and act decisively!

Of course, with all of this, the culture of your organization will most certainly evolve over time…particularly through generational change and transition. In fact, in our teaching, we often point to the growth plateaus where things tend to break if you don’t make smart investments to support continued growth. But, you can keep that fast-moving entrepreneurial spark alive through this growth with the right strategies and mindset.

Driving culture with growth is just one of the many topics that we’ll be covering at our all-new AEC Business Accelerator Lab: Build a Sustainable and Scalable High-Performance Culture. In just two days, we’ll explore how to make the right moves and investments to preserve your firm’s most critical differentiator – its culture.