#34 JooBee's newsletter

TL;DR

🔝 Founders, you're not serious about scaling if this is not a top 3 priority

🌟 OD: The must-have skill for start-up HR leaders 2025

❓ Your views on 2025 priorities for ‘achieving more with less’ (by guest author: Dr. Dieter Veldsman, Chief Scientist @AIHR)

This newsletter edition is brought to you by Waggle 💛

Founders, you're not serious about scaling if this is not a top 3 priority

Over the past 12 months, I’ve been asked this singular, recurring question: “How can we achieve more with less?” It comes up in conversations with founders, VCs, HR leaders and functional executives in start-ups.

As you plan for 2025, I’m flipping the question back to you: 

“Are any of the following, part of your top 3 COMPANY-LEVEL* priorities for 2025?”

• Reducing complexity

• Maximising existing talent

• Prioritising ruthlessly

If not, maybe you are not that serious about ‘achieving more with less.’

The hard truth: Optimisation can’t wait

You can sell more or build more products, but without optimising your operating system—your way of working—you’re simply piling more weight onto an already strained setup. It’s like pushing a 🪨boulder uphill while adding rocks to your pack. Progress will stall, frustration will arise and your team will burn out.

As you plan for 2025, is your whole company actively focusing on:

1️⃣ Reducing complexity?

Efficiency is non-negotiable when scaling. If getting things done feels like wading through molasses, you’re stalling progress. 

• Simplify workflows: Map out key processes, identify bottlenecks and cut the fluff.

• Automate repetitive tasks: Stop throwing people at low-value work. Affordable tools and AI can handle scheduling, reporting and more.

• Standardise practices: Bring consistency to processes across teams to reduce waste and confusion. Use shared principles, templates or guidelines to streamline decisions and execution.

With AI, all of the above becomes faster, smarter, and easier to implement.

2️⃣ Maximising existing talent?

Most start-ups are slowing down in hiring or not hiring at all. This is an opportunity to take a hard look at your current team. You might be overlooking hidden potential.

• Review org structure: Ensure your best players are in roles where they can have the greatest impact. Align talent with business priorities.

• Develop high-value skills: Invest in cost-effective training to enhance your team’s capability to tackle high-impact work while automating time-consuming, low-value work (let’s be honest—no one likes those anyway!). No budget? Check this out:💰 How to develop your people - without a training budget.

• Break down team silos: Facilitate cross-functional collaboration to eliminate inefficiencies, prevent misalignment and avoid duplicated effort.

3️⃣ Prioritising ruthlessly? 

Not all projects are worth your employees’ time. Focus only on what truly drives results—because busy isn’t the same as productive.

• Saying ‘no’ to low-impact projects: If it doesn’t move the needle, drop it. Simple.

• Cut low-value efforts: Every hour spent on “busywork” is one less for high-priority tasks.

• Measure results, not effort: Shift focus from hours worked to results achieved—because effort without impact doesn’t matter (and yes, I’ll admit, I’m lazy—I’d rather work fewer hours and achieve bigger results). 

Achieving more with less, starts now

So, as you look toward 2025, ask yourself and your leadership team: 

If so, these 3 priorities aren’t optional—they’re essential.

The path to scaling smart is clear. Now it’s up to you to commit and deliver.

OD: The must-have skill for start-up HR leaders 2025

During the grow-at-all-costs years of start-ups, HR was tasked with ‘scaling’ organisations to meet future needs. However, with funding streams tightening in recent years, the focus has shifted to the path to profitability and achieving more with less. As a result, HR must now pivot from ‘scaling' to 'optimising' organisations.

This shift makes Organisational Development (OD) a critical skill for HR leaders in start-ups today.

So, what exactly is OD?

If you’re not familiar with OD, that’s because it’s often associated with larger corporations—a specialised skill and approach to managing and reducing complexity. As a result, many HR folks view OD as relevant only for large enterprises. I’d argue the opposite. OD isn’t just relevant—it’s essential for unlocking your start-up’s potential.

OD views the organisation as a living system—a dynamic, interconnected network of people, processes and structures working together. 

The goal of OD is simple: ensure this living system functions optimally and adapts to change.

OD is built upon a few core beliefs that the organisation is: 

• An interconnected system: Every part of an organisation is interconnected. For example, a shift in strategy may require changes in processes, skills, or team dynamics.

• Constantly evolving: Organisations are never static, they must continuously adapt to stay effective.

• Influenced through  key levers that need to be in balance for a business to be successful. OD identifies and aligns the key organisational elements—such as people, processes and technology—to drive success.

• Changed through interventions that can occur at the organisational, team, and individual levels. OD interventions can unlock value at various levels of the business, ranging from individual coaching to comprehensive organisational design.

• Focused on outcomes. The ultimate goal is to achieve alignment and performance that support strategic outcomes. This means ensuring the organisation can effectively address challenges, seize opportunities, and achieve its goals sustainably.

👉 If you are keen to find out more about OD, click here for the complete guide.

Why HR leaders in start-ups need OD now

OD is system thinking. It enables HR to look beyond just people and focus on the interconnected network of people, processes and structures, working together.

OD isn’t a luxury reserved for big corporations—it’s a survival skill for start-ups. It helps HR leaders optimise their start-ups to ‘achieve more with less’ by 1️⃣reducing complexity, 2️⃣ maximising existing talent and 3️⃣enabling ruthless prioritisation.

5 OD steps to optimise start-ups 

OD processes typically follow 5 essential steps: Identify, Diagnose, Develop, Intervene, and Measure. This approach ensures data-driven and targeted interventions that address the organisation’s needs.

Step 1: Identify - What are we solving for?

Define the problem or opportunity we want to focus on

A well-defined problem sets the stage for focused data collection in the next step.

Step 2: Diagnose - Understanding the Present State

Use an OD framework to gather data from multiple sources, such as interviews, surveys, or observations. This framework helps you understand how different parts of the organisation are interconnected and how they relate to the problem. A simple framework I recommend includes these key areas: strategy, structure, skills, stakeholders, systems of work and leadership and culture.

As you can see from our scenario, the goal is to identify skill gaps, development needs, and opportunities to enhance high-value skills. 

Step 3: Develop - Designing Targeted Interventions

Using the data from Step 2, design specific interventions to address the identified skill gaps and development opportunities.

Focus on 3-4 impactful interventions to avoid resource strain— progress should be prioritised over perfection.

Step 4: Intervene - Implementing the solution

Roll out interventions in collaboration with leaders and stakeholders. HR’s role is to facilitate the process while empowering the organisation to own the solutions. Involve employees and leaders in the process to ensure buy-in and lasting impact.

👉 For more examples of OD interventions, explore these 18 case studies.

Step 5: Measure - Evaluating the Impact

Finally, assess the effectiveness of your interventions.

This evaluation helps you assess whether the intervention addressed the problem and provides insights for continuous improvement. 

The bottom line

OD is the key to optimising start-ups for efficiency, adaptability and sustainable growth. By embracing OD’s principles and structured approach, HR leaders can transition from operational firefighting to strategic impact, driving their start-ups toward long-term success.

Need support to build your start-up to scale?

Here are 3 ways I can help you:

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