Understanding Growth With the Greiner Curve

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All organizations want to grow. After all, this means that they're healthy! But, while growth is fun when things are going well, it can also be chaotic and painful at times, too.

The good news is, you can predict and prepare for these “growing pains” using a tool called the Greiner Curve.

The Greiner Curve describes the six key stages that organizations go through as they grow. Each of these consists of a period of relative stability, followed by a crisis point – a point when a major organizational change is needed for growth to continue.

In Phase One, growth is achieved through Creativity.

Your organization is a buzzing startup, creating products and expanding into new markets. But, as more staff join and production expands, it becomes clear that more professional management is needed.

This phase ends with a Leadership Crisis.

Phase Two is Growth Through Direction.

In this phase, the new leaders make their mark by introducing structure and formality. But there comes a point when there are so many products and processes to follow that managing them all becomes complicated and stressful. Their only option is to begin delegating tasks to others, leading to an Autonomy Crisis.

In Phase Three – Growth Through Delegation – the organization solves its autonomy crisis by giving managers greater control.

Many businesses flounder at this stage because leaders find it hard to let go, and managers struggle with their new roles, resulting in a Control Crisis.

During Phase Four, growth is achieved through Coordination and Monitoring.

Business units are reorganized and policies are improved to address the control crisis. Eventually, though, work starts to become stifled by overly bureaucratic procedures, leading to a Red Tape Crisis.

In the fifth phase, growth occurs through Collaboration.

Efforts are made to reduce the amount of red tape, allowing teams to work more collaboratively with each other to deliver projects.

However, it starts to become difficult to achieve internal growth. This means that the organization will need to start looking outward for new growth opportunities.

In the final phase – Growth Through Alliances – growth continues through mergers, outsourcing or external networks involving other companies.

To use the Greiner Curve, consider which phase your organization is in now, and whether it might be nearing a crisis point.

Then, think about how you could avert the crisis. Could you delegate more? Take on more responsibility? Or, change the way you reward teams, for example?

Planning ahead for these crises will help your organization to overcome them, so that it can continue to grow successfully!

To learn more about the Greiner Curve, see the article that accompanies this video.