Readiness To Scale:A Guide for Scaling Social Business

Rizwan TayabaliSupported by Ashoka Globalizer

2

Adapted from

The PATRI Framework for Scaling Social Impact

© Rizwan Tayabali, 2014

3

The PATRI framework takes you step by step through all the aspects of diligence needed to understand whether or not scaling is feasible

for you and if so, to produce an effective scaling plan that you can follow during implementation.

4

PATRI Framework

IPurpose

IIApplicability

(Viability)

IIITransferability

IVReadiness

VImplementation

5

An overview of the complete PATRI Framework, is provided in a

linked presentation called ...

“PATRI Framework for Scaling Social Business”

6

PATRI Framework

Caveats1. The following guide is specifically targeted at social

businesses and therefore places an emphasis on financial viability along with impact i.e. It is designed for organisations that create their impact through the use of business models.

2. The PATRI Framework is focused on scaling rather than incremental growth. If you are simply aiming to set up operations in another location or enter another market, then the framework will still offer you value, but some aspects of it may only be applicable a bit further down the line.

7

The 1st step of the Framework is to define purpose and targets, without which you have no

useful basis for planning or design.

If you haven’t already got clarity around these, more support is provided in a

linked presentation called ...“Defining Purpose: A Guide To

Scaling Social Business”

Purpose

The 2nd step of the Framework, is to understand whether or not your model will be applicable at

scale, and if not, how you could adjust it to make it more relevant and viable.

If you haven’t already considered applicability, support is provided in a

linked presentation called ...“Applicability at Scale: A Guide To

Scaling Social Business”Applicability

(Viability)

The 3rd step of the Framework is to improve your solution and model’s ability to be replicated or delivered by others i.e. to

ensure that it is systematic and transferable for use in scaling, either by your own teams

or by external partners.

If you haven’t already addressed transferability, support is provided in a

linked presentation called ...“Transferability for Scale: A Guide To

Scaling Social Business” Transferability

Once you have standardised your methodologies and processes, you can begin to focus on whether or not your organisation and

people are ready for scaling.

This guide thus focuses specifically on the 4th step of the Framework, which helps you establish whether or not your organisation and people are ready for scaling, and if not,

what you can do about it.

Readiness

13

It is worth evaluating organisational readiness prior to implementation because the costs involved are typically significant, not just in terms of infrastructure, but also in terms of

time and effort required to embed new working practices.

Readiness

Once you go past this stage, you will also begin to commit significant resources to scaling, and it will get harder and more painful to back out or change direction if things don’t work out as

planned.

Readiness

As the costs and implications aggregate, this therefore is the final stage at which you can safely decide whether or not to proceed with

scaling in the way you expect.

Readiness

Key Factors

Organisational Design

Optimal Size

Decision Making

Resistance to ChangeKnowledge

Technology

Infrastructure

Readiness

17

Regardless of approach, the process of scaling is likely to require a degree of organisational

evolution and some increase in size.

Readiness

Organisational Design

Existing capacity and expertise may need to be redeployed to focus on scaling, and new teams

and skills may need to be created.

The way your organisation is designed needs to be flexible enough to support this.

Readiness

Organisational Design

You can improve flexibility by...

1. Reorganising your teams, roles and responsibilities into verticals that directly reflect core strategies and components. 2. Reducing management hierarchies by

moving towards a skill oriented one.3. Focusing rewards on collective

outcomes rather than individual ones4. Devolving decision-making and rewarding

initiative & entrepreneurialism

Readiness

Organisational Design

Scaling can require technical skills that aren't necessarily present in social organisations, and

often requires a level of capacity that can't easily be fulfilled by overstretched teams.

This is especially so when you are embarking on new pathways to making an impact.

Readiness

Optimal Size

Increasing the workload of existing teams, especially when this includes new activities

they aren't familiar with or specialised for, can introduce a significant element of risk and

operational stress.

Readiness

Optimal Size

Estimating workload at this stage will therefore give you an early idea of the kind of resourcing

it will actually take to effectively implement and deliver outcomes at scale.

Readiness

Optimal Size

The key is to map out the skills and capacitythat you think will be required for setting up and executing your chosen mechanism(s) of

scaling.

Readiness

Optimal Size

An effective way to do this, is to

1. Identify the programs and activities needed to deliver your core strategies

2. Break those activities into component tasks.

3. Then estimate the skills and effort required to execute those tasks to the quality you need.

Readiness

Optimal Size

The end result should allow you to establish at least a fair understanding of what your optimal

size and structure should be, both to kick off the scaling process, and to eventually run and

manage delivery and outcomes on the scale you are aiming for.

Readiness

Optimal Size

Having established what you need, you can then evaluate whether or not the skills are easily

available to your organisation, what it will cost, and subsequently whether or not procuring

them is likely to be a feasible option.

Readiness

Optimal Size

Small and mid-sized social organisations are often structured around a single founder or

leader, which can lead to decision bottle-necks.

Readiness

Decision Making

With only so much time available to any individual, scaling priorities can mean a

diversion of attention away from the original endeavour, which often puts not just the impact,

but also all existing operations at risk.

Readiness

Decision Making

The ideal scenario would involve a dedicated team that is able to focus on the planning and

set up of any scaling endeavour, with only a high-level involvement of the leader or

leadership team.

Readiness

Decision Making

If this doesn't seem feasible, and you can’t finance an increase in leadership capacity, this again should drive a reconsideration of scaling

plans, or change in timeframes to allow for developing internal resources to fill that role.

Readiness

Decision Making

Scaling often has significant organisational impact, not just on workload, but also on internal hierarchies and expectations.

Readiness

Resistance to Change

Any activity that changes internal parameters or pushes people and teams out of their

comfort zones needs to be carefully managed.

Readiness

Resistance to Change

It can otherwise result in unexpected and sometimes extreme behaviour, including both

intended and unintended sabotage as individuals look to maintain the status quo

while things are changing around them.

This is known as resistance to change, and is a real and well documented risk.

Readiness

Resistance to Change

As a leader or founder too, it is important to consider the implications that scaling will have

for you, and whether or not it is something you're comfortable with.

Readiness

Resistance to Change

The best way to manage resistance to changeis to put resources towards a decent

change-management programme, underpinned by a good internal communications plan.

Readiness

Resistance to Change

Decisions need to be thought through and benefits carefully communicated to ensure that

teams and staff feel supported and engaged, have realistic expectations and are genuinely

behind the scaling effort.

Readiness

Resistance to Change

As you scale you will also learn more about the domain and issue that you are trying to impact.

Readiness

Knowledge

If you don't have a good knowledge-sharing culture, a lot of this learning will remain

isolated.

Most commonly, the result is an ongoing reinvention of the wheel with resulting losses in

efficiency and effectiveness.

Readiness

Knowledge

This learning alternatively represents opportunities to drive continual improvement,

and consequently refinements and increases in quality of outcomes.

Readiness

Knowledge

Both factors make it worth investing in managing and sharing knowledge when scaling.

Readiness

Knowledge

A good place to start is to

1. Make strategic planning and design freely accessible to internal teams

2. Embed ongoing team learning reviews3. Invest in the systematisation of your model

(see section III.Transferability)4. Set up information repositories to make knowledge easily accessible across your

organisation or partner network.

Readiness

Knowledge

Most small or mid-sized organisations have very basic office level hardware, networking

and security, potentially with shared drives, and the primary use of technology is e-mail.

These systems can get rapidly overwhelmed when scaling, and are difficult to standardise

in terms of working practices.

Readiness

Technology

On an operational level the key is to check whether your hardware and software have

enough spare capacity to accommodate more users and more data, and whether or not they can adapt to different needs or uses as your

organisation or network evolves.

Readiness

Technology

Technology can also have great strategic application.

Readiness

Technology

From the web to partner portals, platforms, intranets and social commerce, technology can

be a great enabler for scale.

In today's world of ubiquitous mobile access, SMS messaging and apps can also help access and interact with beneficiaries in a wide range

of environments.

Readiness

Technology

It is therefore worth considering and building the costs of technology into your planning, or

alternatively managing the rate of scalingin a way that doesn't overwhelm the technical

infrastructure that you have.

Readiness

Technology

Infrastructure implications should have been factored into your choice of scaling pathway

already, but at this stage it warrants a deeper analysis to ensure that you aren't putting

your organisation at risk of being overwhelmed when scaling.

Readiness

Infrastructure

Even if your scaling pathway does not explicitly involve organic growth, most scaling efforts do require some form of organisational evolution

and increase in size.

Readiness

Infrastructure

The scale of your ambition and related optimal size may require more physical space

to support these changes.

Readiness

Infrastructure

If you are also planning to enable physical operations in multiple locations, there is a

direct implication for physical infrastructure to support that too.

Readiness

Infrastructure

Physical infrastructure isn't just limited to space.

New premises still have to be filled. You will need to consider the costs of fixtures and

fittings, furniture and computing hardware, plus any other equipment that your teams need

to perform their work or deliver impact.

Readiness

Infrastructure

The feasibility of raising the finance/funds to enable this increase is a critical factor in an

organisation's ability to deliver impact on scale.

Readiness

Infrastructure

If the costs of organisational readiness seem too high, you could consider sharing and re-use

strategies, or limit your scale ambitions to prevent overloading your physical and

logistical resources.

Readiness

You could also adjust your design to increase the autonomy of partners or local units to

reduce the load on your organisation, or simply decide to let others scale your impact for you by making your model replicable and openly

available for them to independently use and apply.

Readiness

When you have understood what is required to get your organisation and people ready for

scaling, you can move on to the final piece of the process, which is to prepare for

implementation.

Readiness

A guide to the next step of planning and creating roadmaps for implementation is provided in a linked presentation called ...

“Implementation at Scale: A Guide forScaling Social Business”

57

Implementation

©Rizwan Tayabali, 2014

58