Growth and culture change

An old friend, client and former RVAer Steve Isaac once told me as it relates to business, “you either grow or die.”  But he never told me what happens when you grow and run out of room.

So it goes at THP.  Our latest hire Tony Scida (great additional already and he’s been with us for two days), has forced as past the tipping point.  You see until now most of us (10 out of 11, Stacey is in Seattle…long story) have been within shouting distance of each other on one floor in a very open environment.  While most people might cringe at this, there are many benefits.  The least of which for me was that I could always tell when someone was having trouble and could try to deal with it right away.

The new addition triggered the beginning of the eventual rennovation of our building.  In the meantime we have rented space across the parking lot and three intrepid souls, including my business partner, are now in the “annex.”

Part of me is already mourning the good old days.  Part of me however is now looking forward to not taking internal communication for granted as you sometimes do when you are all within sight and shout.

I even called my business partner on the way home to wish him good night.  He had already left to go to a meeting and called me later to make sure there was nothing wrong.  I think we need to work at this a little 🙂

That being said, there is always IM, which is already in heavy use in our office and I know there are social marketing tools, including some offshoots of Twitter, designed to keep the flow going.

I’d love to hear some stories about how other organizations have dealt with this issue, as well as getting some insight into some of the tools available.

Meanwhile, we will do our best to adjust and be more intentional about communicating.  That’s what we would tell our clients to do, isn’ t it. “)