The Six Factors to Trust-Made Growth
THE FACTORS THAT DEFINE TRUST-MADE GROWTH
What are the Trust-Made Growth Factors?
Not all growth is made equal. We work in an era where shortcuts to growth powered by the Private Equity Playbook, have pushed to the margins the more reliable and long-term forms of growth that are repeatable, client-centric, and respectful of your team and its capabilities. Our short-hand for this is "Trust-Made" Growth, which is powered by, dependent on, and multiplicative of the trust between leaders and team members, the team and the customers, the brand and its clients, and the public and the brand.
Trust-Made Growth is the only sustainable form of growth. It's the only thing that is resilient to market shifts, capital structure changes, and trends. That doesn't mean it can't and won't rise and fall. All growth requires long-term cultivation. And even the healthiest ventures can get poisoned. But when we power growth with the human capacity for trust, we embed our organizations with resiliency, intrinsic motivation, and creative force.
In our work at CultureCraft we have isolated six factors that are fundamental to the advancement and resistance to growth, particularly the trust-made variety. In this summary we'll review each of the six factors, what they mean, and how to recognize them.
CULTURE
Culture is the implicit way of being in an organization made up of its myths, rhythms, artifacts, and stories. It is made and unmade by relationships.
All organizations have a Culture, and most think they have a great culture. People like to work there. They give positive reviews on surveys. They have limited complaints. They've spent a lot of money developing their mission and values.
Growth Culture, by contrast, is a way of organizing people, time, structure, and purpose within an organization that deepens trust between all parties and makes everyone want to grow. It leverages people's natural capacity for growth in a way that is generative, healthy, and repeatable.
COMMUNITY
Community is how we imagine, engage, and activate our best prospective and current clients, constituents, team members, and partners.
Relationships are the playing field of trust. A network of relationships is a community. In our highly digitized age where nearly everything we think about, read, or consider is mediated through some form of technology, we are less able to build networks of real relationships than ever.
It's no wonder growth is suffering in ventures from colleges to advisory firms.
A venture's health and capacity for growth is directly proportional to its understanding and engagement with an intentional community of prospects, clients, and partners.
ORG DESIGN
Org Design is how we allocate authority, responsibility, and accountability. It is the system of agreements between roles and departments that define venture's outcomes.
You've heard it said that all organizations fall to the level of their systems, and this is true. Or at least partially so. Systems are just one piece of the network of decisions that make up organizational design.
Fundamentally, Org Design is about how we collaborate, how we distribute power and authority, and what we hold accountable for what. A venture's Culture contributes mightily to your growth capacity, but not without the companion of Org Design.
You can have the best people and the most valuable products and services and still suffer from an inability to grow because your business is not designed for growth.
POSITIONING
Positioning is how we understand the choices our clients make and how we define our ability to solve their problems vis-a-vis all the other options they could choose.
You'll make very little long term progress as a venture if you don't understand the choices your priority prospects are making. Some of that is about understanding your competitive set, but more broadly it is about knowing deeply what its like for your best future clients to choose you (and not choose you).
Once you understand that, including the category of choices in which you live, then its your job to clearly position your venture (and its services) for your customer. This goes beyond the pedantic list of "differentiators" and goes to building all factors of an organization to produce a truly unique offering for the people you would most like to serve.
VALUE CREATION
Value Creation is the confluence of service design and engagement powered by a deep understanding of your ideal client.
Trust grows when you consistently deliver value. Trust becomes an engine for growth when you deliver value at the pace, in the form, and with the care that your customer expects. That also requires you to manage and craft those expectations.
Value creation is about building the ladder of client engagement (as a contrast to the false promise of the "sales funnel") Your best customers aspire to maximize what you offer, they want to be the kind of people that work with you. Delivering packaged value strategically is how you manage and expand that aspiration.
POINT OF VIEW
Point of View is the engine behind differentiation powered by clear beliefs and distinguised thinking about everything your venture touches.
Point-of-View is how you evangelize your value. It means you have something to say about what your customer should know. what they should expect, and of course, what they should do.
Transactional growth occurs when you consistently sell a solution. Consistent and self-generating growth occurs when you are seen as the firm that best understands the problem.
In many cases, ventures with the most actionable point-of-view see the industry in which they are positioned as part of the problem and are leading customers away from the mediocrity of a clearly defined status quo.
