A lot of operational improvements look solid while the person who introduced them is still there, and then disappear when that person changes role or leaves. Given how much institutional knowledge you found sitting in founders’ heads and inboxes, staff turnover over the next year could be quite a revealing test.
If some of the organisations go through that kind of transition, whether the processes still work without the person who set them up seems like a stronger test of institutionalisation than another readiness score on its own.
I agree to an extent—building redundancies into systems and institutional memory is both important and a luxury for resource-strapped orgs. Nonetheless, if an org has experienced a notable process improvement that they then lose upon employee turnover, they will likely be motivated to add capacity back to cover that lost process. This experience with process improvement may well inform the qualities they look for in their next hire. So still very much a net gain along the organizational maturity ladder!
A lot of operational improvements look solid while the person who introduced them is still there, and then disappear when that person changes role or leaves. Given how much institutional knowledge you found sitting in founders’ heads and inboxes, staff turnover over the next year could be quite a revealing test.
If some of the organisations go through that kind of transition, whether the processes still work without the person who set them up seems like a stronger test of institutionalisation than another readiness score on its own.
I agree to an extent—building redundancies into systems and institutional memory is both important and a luxury for resource-strapped orgs. Nonetheless, if an org has experienced a notable process improvement that they then lose upon employee turnover, they will likely be motivated to add capacity back to cover that lost process. This experience with process improvement may well inform the qualities they look for in their next hire. So still very much a net gain along the organizational maturity ladder!