Life Cycles of an Organization: Starting, Maintaining, Finishing

Every organization has a life cycle. In fact, over the life of an organization, there will be many separate life cycles. I have written about organizational life cycles before.

Within those life cycles the successful organization develops a team skilled at separate functions.

The three functions are:

Starting – Starting involves dreaming, vision-casting, recruitment of people to follow a new idea or initiative. These are the people who embrace change and are always ready for something new. (I typically fit in this group BTW.)

Maintaining – Maintaining involves setting up and managing systems in an effort to continue the progress already begun by others. These people sometimes resist change, but value things which are organized, structured, and understandable. (Starters, don’t complain. We need these people. 🙂 )

Finishing – Finishing is different from starting or maintaining, because it’s not beginning new, nor is it staying the same, but it involves taking an established idea and carrying it to the next destination. It could be to improve things, or to close them gracefully. These are people who have the ability and desire to make existing things better and to finish things well.

Here’s why this matters in an organization:

In my observation, people tend to lean towards one of the three, but may be comfortable in two of them. It is rare to find someone gifted in all three.

I love being a starter. Since I was in high school, I’ve wanted to start clubs or initiatives, alter the direction of something, or stir up some intentional change. I can live in the finishing role for a time if it involves development or innovation, but I always drift back to starting something new. I burn out quickly in the maintaining position. It’s one reason I’m consistently tossing out new ideas to our team. (It’s also how I frustrate them most. 🙂 )

One goal of a team should be to balance out the strengths of the team members around each of these, so the team is always starting, maintaining, and finishing well, recognizing that each of these functions of a life cycle are equally important.

It requires all three.

Which are you wired for best?

(If you say all three, you might want to ask people around you to help you evaluate your answer.)