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WHITEWATER

WHAT IS WHITEWATER?

  • Whitewater is the third stage in every organization’s development, after Early Struggle and Fun.
  • Whitewater arrives as a natural outgrowth from the success of Fun.
  • The main cause of Whitewater is complexity arising from that very growth.
  • It is evidenced by increasing errors and emergencies in the organization.
  • It can take up to a year for the organization's leadership to recognize the arrival of Whitewater—at first, they think the errors and emergencies are merely “bumps in the road.”
  • Some leadership teams choose to take their organizations permanently back to Fun.
  • Other organizations oscillate in and out of Fun and Whitewater, repeating each of the steps above.
  • During Whitewater, the organization’s focus shifts from out-and-out growth at any cost to efficiency and effectiveness.

DANGER ZONE!

Whitewater is one of the 4 visible danger zones in the growth Lifecycle. The longer you stay there, the closer you get every day to losing key people, losing your strategic direction, and draining vital resources.

"Being in Whitewater is not a choice - getting out of it is."
- Les McKeown, Founder and CEO, Predictable Success


"...you found a company, you run it, then it runs you."

- David Neeleman, then CEO of JetBlue


The 3 Key Challenges in Whitewater

INSTALL PROCESS WHILE STILL MOVING FORWARD

You know you need to install systems and processes in order to manage the complexity your growth has brought, but doing so seems to slow everything down. You can't find a way to both install process and continue to grow.


Find out why

RESISTING THE MAGNETic PULL OF FUN

It seems only yesterday that everything you did 'just worked'. The 'Fun' period now seems like a golden age of successful growth, and you can't understand why what worked so well then isn't working now.


Find out how

CHANGING YOUR LEADERSHIP MINDSET

After years of 'trusting your gut', it's clear that everything has become too complicated to just shoot from the hip. You know you need to adjust your leadership mindset, but you're not sure exactly how or why.



Find out how and why 

Build The Team You Need to Get Out of Whitewater

A key element - in our view, the key element of achieving successful growth is in building the right team. Here at Predictable Success we've uncovered the precise combination of 4 specific leadership styles needed to move through each one of the 7 growth stages in the growth Lifecycle. Here's what you need in place in order to optimize the time you spend in Fun:

Visionary

To be successful, every  venture needs a Visionary - someone who thinks at the 30,000' level and sets the overall strategy and direction. Visionaries are 'starters' and come up with new ideas.

Learn more

The Operator

Operator

Visionaries become easily frustrated  with detail and attending to the 'nitty-gritty' of execution, so they need to have one or more Operators - ruthless finishers who get things done.


Learn more

The Processor

PROCESSOR

Processors install systems, policies and procedures and are needed in this stage of growth (stage 3, 'Whitewater'). Having Processors too early will slow down your growth.


Learn more


The Synergist

SYNERGIST

Eventually you will need some Synergists if you want to get to the peak stage of growth ('Predictable Success'), but like Processors, they will hold you back if you put them on the team too early.

Learn more

ARE YOU TRULY SERIOUS ABOUT GETTING OUT OF Whitewater?

(HINT: You should be. The longer you stay in Whitewater, the more your team will fragment, and the more you will lose your strategic sense of direction.)

By far the fastest way to accelerate out of Whitewater is to enroll in The Predictable Success Acceleration Program - a proven, time-test, highly cost-effective Program that will not only accelerate your move out of Whitewater, it will be your constant guide an companion as you progress all the way through to Predictable Success:

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