From one leadership crisis to the next
As organisations grow, potential crises arise. Let's revisit a model that can spark conversations within teams and organisations on how to overcome these crises and empower value creation.
3 min read ·
A few years ago, while studying for an online EMBA (my Covid project), I picked up a book called the “10 Days MBA”. In this (somewhat outdated) book from the 90s, I discovered an even older model by Larry Greiner.
It immediately resonated with me as it touched on topics of leadership, autonomy, and control that are central to much of our work.
The model was published in Harvard Business Review in the article “Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow” by Larry E. Greiner, Volume 50, Number 4, July/August 1972. In 1998, he added a sixth phase focusing on alliances. We have based the following models on this version.
You can download our versions as a PDF to use in your workshops – Workz Sheet Model
The model describes how companies pass through a series of phases as they grow. Each phase is characterised by a specific source of growth and culminates in a crisis that they must overcome.
- Growth from creativity leads to a crisis of leadership.
- Growth from direction leads to a crisis of autonomy.
- Growth from delegation leads to a crisis of control.
- Growth from coordination leads to a crisis of red tape.
- Growth from collaboration leads to a crisis of growth.
- Growth through alliances.
My thoughts on this model
I do not consider the model as a predictive or analytic tool, but rather as a mapping or conversation tool.
I do not put much stock in the idea that all companies must necessarily go through these phases in this order. Yet the model resonates well with teams and companies when talking about leadership and empowerment in relation to value creation.
Like a children’s doctor asking a child to “show me on the teddy bear where it hurts.” I use the model to spark a conversation about what phase people think they are in, and what their “crisis” is. It works well whether you are using it to describe companies at large or smaller teams within them.
Perspectives matter, and it is not uncommon for management and their team members to have different perspectives on what the crisis is. This can lead to good discussions and insights from all parties. I am not particularly fond of the model’s linearity, though.
Over the past 10 years, there has been a lively discussion in large legacy organisations that want to circle back to the first phase. A movement like “Founder’s mentality” speaks to the need to revert, in part, to an earlier stage of the entrepreneurial mindset, with a focus on value creation through creativity. The model does not reflect this very well, as it states that companies must turn to outside help to solve their crisis of innovation.
For this reason, we have designed a revised version of the model that replaces the linear focus on growth and size with a more circular perspective.
I am curious, what do you think of the original model and my remix? Where would you place your company or team in the model?
