The Expansion Disease In Leadership

Understanding your Organization's Vitality Quotient Is Important, especially when it comes to Growth.

All Leaders have a desire for Growth in their Organizations.

• Profit Growth
• Team Growth
• Solution Growth
• Customer Growth
• Profit Growth (wait, did I say that already?)

But there is something we must Realize if we want Growth that lasts.

Growth requires Energy (Mg-ATP).

It doesn't matter what type of Growth we are talking about.

Whenever there is Growth in Life, Energy (Mg-ATP) is Required.

When you study Habit Building, you learn another little secret to this fact of Life.

All Growth Requires "Extra" Energy (Mg-ATP) in the Beginning.

When you want to Build a Habit, it takes a Lot of Focus, Dedication, Discipline, and Willpower at the Beginning.

However, this is only True at the Beginning.

As the Habit sets in, it begins to require less and less Energy (Mg-ATP) to Maintain.

Until you get to a point where, literarily, less Energy (Mg-ATP) is required to "do" the Habit than is required to "not do" the Habit.

This is actually something that occurs!

When you are so Habituated to doing something, and you decide "not" to do it, it causes our Psychophysiology a "Lot" of Dis-Stress.

That Dis-Stress causes more Energy (Mg-ATP) Loss than simply "doing" the Habit - even in activities like Intense Working Out!

Now, what does this have to do with Leadership?

Well, there is this Idea that exists with many Businesses that they need to Expand as Quickly as possible!

According to this Theory, it doesn't matter "how" you Expand, as long as it is done Quickly.

There is a Problem with this Theory.

It doesn't match Reality.

It creates the Expansion Disease.

Why?

Energy.

The faster that something must Expand, the Exponentially more Energy will be Required to make it Functionally Work.

Think of it like this.

Say you want to grow X amount, and it requires Y energy.

If you wanted to grow 1, it might require 1 energy.

If you wanted to grow 2, it might require 3 energy.

If you wanted to grow 3, it might require 9 energy.

If you wanted to grow 4, it might require 27 energy.

If you wanted to grow 10, it might require 19,683 energy.

I think you can see how quickly this becomes Problematic.

What is the Energy that is Required in Business?

Money is important and many businesses can Expand with the right Investments in their Organization.

But Money doesn't solve everything.

More Important are People, Physical Resources, and Time.

The shorter the Time that you want something to occur, the significantly more People and Resources will be needed to accomplish the Expansion.

But what happens when the Expansion happens (because there is enough Money), but the People and Resources don't match?

Chaos.

With People, it quickly becomes Burnout.

With Resources, it can create Extreme Competition, as well as unfavorable conditions for the Suppliers leading to Lower Quality Output.

How does this Impact the Organization?

Well, let's think of it from a Biology Metaphor.

Let's say there is a Human that grows exponentially fast (Human=Organization), but their Immune System doesn't get enough Energy to produce Antibodies (Immune System=Employees).

What happens to the Human (Organization)?

The Human (Organization) becomes horribly sick, and over time becomes less able to fight future sickness.

They become susceptible to Disease.

If the Immune System (Employees) doesn't get Energy fast enough to fight the Disease(s), the Human (Organization) dies.

In Business, this would be how the Expansion Disease plays out.

Your Employees do not have the Energy (Mg-ATP) to create the Output necessary to meet Demands, which leads to Burnout.

Burnout has a double impact where it eats Energy (Mg-ATP) due to Excessive Stress Damage, and it significantly lowers Productivity meaning "less" gets done.

To compensate, more Resources are needed, as well as Money.

However the Organization is Expanding too quickly, and the Resources and Money cannot match what is required in the face of increasing Burnout.

Then, eventually, the Business Dies.

Now, some Businesses have gotten "really" good at hiding the Decay that is Happening in their Organizations.

Utilizing PR, Spreadsheets, and Speeches to hide the Reality.

But really, these Organizations are simply Zombies, already Dead yet still roaming, consuming Resources that will never bring them back to Life.

As in all Zombie Stories, one of two things will happen.

Those who are still Alive will eventually kill the Zombies.

Or the Zombies will eventually run out of food and will fully deteriorate.

In Business, this looks like:

• Employees refusing to follow Leaders
• Active Disengagement
• Overreliance on Technology to Solve Problems they Can't Solve
• Extreme Burnout
• Lack of Innovation
• Lack of Creative Problem Solving
• Mass Layoffs
• Toxic Culture

Just to name a few.

I say this, not because Growth is Bad, but rather that Expansion beyond Energy (Mg-ATP) always backfires.

It creates far more Problems than Solutions.

Expansion doesn't have to be like this.

If you understand your Organization's VQ, you can Grow Sustainably.

Truly, if you are smart about how you Grow, you can both Outgrow and Outlast all your Competitors.

The key is that you need a Regenerative Legacy Organization.

If you build up, or Regenerate, your Energy stores then you can Expand to a healthy point.

Once there you can stabilize, which actually takes significantly less time if you "focus" on it.

Then, you Regenerate to another round of Growth.

It requires fewer Resources to Grow like this, and as Competitors become overwhelmed with Mass Burnout, you're Organization can go for Group Flow States.

The Research around Flow States says that Humans should be 5x more Productive than an "average" Employee.

However, "average" was determined before Mass Burnout became the norm among Employees.

I would estimate it is closer to 10x more Productive than a "Burntout" Employee.

This also doesn't take into consideration the Multiplier Effect of Group Flow.

If I were to take a guess and purposefully underestimate, I'd say a Team of 10 Employees would each be 15x more Productive than a Burntout Employee.

Which Business do you think wins?

The 100 Employees who are all in Group Flow together?

Or the 1,500 Employees who are all in Group Burnout together?

Considering that the "average" Employee in the States makes more than $50,000 per year, we can use that as a "base".

We can estimate that the Cost of the workforce alone is $70,000,000 "More" for the second group.

That doesn't take into account the inevitable Silos, Miscommunications, Infighting, Active Disengagement, Quiet Quitting, and more that exists in the second group.

At the end of the day, the Healthier Organization wins.

This is why Leaders need to start to Design Regenerative Legacies.