You’re gonna need a bigger boat!
When you’re in hypergrowth, it feels like relentless speed is the strategy. It works, until the tides shift and you realize the boat you’ve built wasn't designed for what's coming at you.
I saw this play out firsthand when I was leading operations at a fast-growing healthcare services company.
Speed meets choppy waters...
We were winning clients, scaling quickly, doing all the things you’re supposed to do in growth mode. Compliance had an owner, a capable executive who was managing it alongside an already full-time job. The waters were manageable and it worked fine…for a while.
Then a wave of regulatory changes hit the healthcare industry. The waters got choppier with the volume of compliance work practically doubling overnight.
So, in the name of speed and with a bias for action, we went with our first instinct…we moved the problem. Shifted compliance ownership from the side of one executive’s desk to the side of another executive’s desk (mine!).
Spoiler: that didn’t fix it.
By the time compliance landed with me, I could finally see the full picture and the size of the shark…and I realized, “we’re gonna need a bigger boat!”
After some hemming and hawing, I got the crew together and we redesigned it.
How we redesigned our boat...
1. We mapped the work and the people
First, we took inventory of everything we could see and reorganized the work across our cross-functional teams. We mapped roles and responsibilities in a shared document. Where we identified gaps that couldn't be solved by reshuffling what we already had, we brought in the expertise needed to close them.
2. We made the work visible
We created a centralized tracker that captured every compliance regulation, initiative, and deadline in one shared view. No more hunting through email threads or information living in people's heads. We finally had a single source of truth, and people actually used it.
3. We built a meeting rhythm
We set up a regular meeting cadence with stakeholders across every function that touched compliance. The call was our governance forum: a structured and efficient place where risks were surfaced and everyone stayed focused on the same priorities. Having the right people in the room gave us a sense of shared accountability (without losing the ownership clarity we mapped in step 1!).
The leadership shift that followed...
I’ll be honest here. I did NOT jump straight into redesign mode. My first reaction was to simply work harder and find more hours (just another hat to wear, right?). The requests were constant and taking a step back felt like a luxury I didn’t have. But at some point I had to face that it wasn’t just a capacity problem, it was a design problem.
Once the boat was rebuilt, the whole crew knew where to be and what to do. With clearer ownership and visible work, the efficiency gains were immediate. We finally felt confident that we could meet the demand coming at us.
It changed how we showed up externally too. We stopped being reactive and started showing up prepared, flagging the regulatory changes we were tracking. What had been a defensive posture became a differentiator. Clients noticed, and our proactive approach became a competitive advantage.
That's what a well-built system does. It steadies the boat and frees you to actually navigate. The Execution & Accountability pillar of the Leadership Operating System™ is built around exactly this: clear ownership, visible work, and governance rhythms that keep everything moving together.
If you're in growth mode and the waters are getting rough, that's usually the signal. Some questions worth asking: Is there a function in your organization that's outgrown its current setup? What needs to be redesigned now, so the boat is sturdy enough to handle the next wave?
If this is resonating, let’s talk about what redesigning the boat could look like for you...book a discovery call here.
Hope Gong is an executive coach and the creator of the Leadership Operating System℠, a framework that enables leaders to build individual and organizational systems that drive breakthrough results.
