The Overlooked Key to a Successful Scale-Up

In this article, the authors invite us to rethink our very conception of a project’s deployment phase: it isn’t a matter of unrolling a plan that has been established ahead of time, but rather of continuing to adjust our model at the same time as we disseminate it. According to them, the traditional dichotomy between the exploration and exploitation phases increases the risk of failure. They thus recommend inserting an extrapolation phase that borrows heavily from the principles of agility: testing, rapid collection and analysis of feedback, adaptation. The article also sets out this model’s implications for an organization: preference for operating in small, modular teams, autonomy, a mindset of perpetual experimentation and learning, etc. A stimulating reflection.