Growth creates opportunity. It also creates people challenges earlier than most leaders expect
After more than 25 years in People & Culture across New Zealand, Australia, the UK and Europe, Nicola Cook joined Humankind to partner with founders, CEOs and leadership teams through its partnership model.
Drawing on experience across technology, FMCG, education and private equity-backed businesses, she shares what she's learned supporting organisations through growth.
A different kind of consulting
Humankind’s partnership model appealed to me because it offered the chance to work across several businesses while staying closely involved in each one.
You work alongside founders, CEOs and leadership teams, to understand what they are trying to achieve and help them work through the people decisions.
The advice has to be practical and commercially considered. Leaders in growing businesses are busy and want clear advice they can act on.
That means understanding the commercial context and explaining things simply. Leaders need to know what the issue is, why it matters and what needs to happen next.
"The goal isn't to overcomplicate things. It's to build capability within the business so leaders at all levels feel confident making good people decisions."
Different businesses, similar challenges
Every business is different, but many of the challenges that come with growth are similar.
A structure that worked for a small team can become unclear as more people join. Decision-making that works in a start-up doesn't always work as the business grows. Responsibilities start to overlap and people become unsure about ownership.
Growth can also mean technical experts move into leadership roles before they have had much support to develop their people leadership skills.
Working across several businesses helps you recognise these patterns early, whether that’s a structure falling behind strategy, decision-making slowing the business down, or leaders needing more support.
"The answer will vary across organisations. The value comes from understanding the context and identifying issues or the growing-pains early."
Leading the people side of the Echo and BMS-IT integration
Echo, New Zealand’s leading technology lifecycle solutions company, recently acquired BMS-IT and partnered with Humankind to support the people side of the integration.
Our initial work focused on Discovery, identifying integration priorities and developing a 12-month people integration roadmap. Both businesses have loyal, long-tenured teams and leaders who cared about their people. They wanted to bring the organisations together while retaining the strengths of each business.
An integration requires a wide range of people decisions. The leadership team needed to consider the future structure, reporting lines, responsibilities and leadership capability. They also needed to bring together two sets of processes and ways of working.
All of this happening while both businesses continued to operate.
Discovery laid the foundation for an ongoing partnership with Echo, with my role evolving into leading the People Workstream alongside the founders and executive team, with regular reporting to the Board.
The programme of work covered four key areas, including organisational design, talent, people foundations, and employee experience throughout the integration.
This approach provides the leadership team a clear view of the priorities, decision points and progress, while enabling Humankind to continue driving work between leadership discussions.
"The partnership also gives the business access to the wider Humankind team. While I lead the overall People Workstream, I can draw on specialist employee relations and operational expertise as needed. "
The work also reflects the organisational evolution that often follows acquisition and growth, where increasing scale requires greater clarity around roles, responsibilities and decision-making.
The experience has reinforced the value of involving experienced people capability early in periods of growth and change. Decisions about organisational design, leadership, employee experience and communication begin from the outset.
The focus isn’t to combine two businesses as quickly as possible, but to integrate them thoughtfully while preserving the strengths that already exist.
Supporting founders through Bridgewest
Bridgewest has partnered with Humankind for several years to support a portfolio of early-stage deep-tech businesses. Each portfolio company is at a different stage of growth and requires different types of people support. Some have recently raised capital and are preparing to scale. Others need support with strengthening the people foundations needed for their next stage of growth.
The portfolio teams, typical of start-ups, are initially lean meaning founder/CEO leaders are involved in most areas of the business. As these companies grow, these leaders need to move from making most decisions themselves to giving other leaders more responsibility. Our role is to help these founders/CEOs create the clarity that enables others to contribute, while retaining the parts of the business that are already working well. For one company, the work may involve preparing for a period of hiring. For another, it may involve evolving the leadership structure, strengthening capability or helping a founder navigate a complex employee relations issue.
Working across the Bridgewest portfolio we recognise common growth patterns, however every business is different and so our approach always reflects the founder, the team and the stage of the business.
"Our long-standing partnership means we can support the Bridgewest team, their founders and CEOs to evolve their portfolio’s by providing the right level of people support at each stage of growth."
What partnership looks like in practice
"The most important part of a partnership is trust. You need to understand the business, the leadership team and how decisions are made. Once that relationship is established, you can support leaders across a wide range of situations."
Some days I am working with a founder on a difficult decision. Other days I am facilitating a leadership discussion, reviewing the structure or helping a manager prepare for a challenging conversation.
Because you know the business well, you understand the context and can provide advice that fits the situation.
The work can also change as the business changes. A client may begin with support on an integration or organisation design. Over time, they may need recruitment, employee relations support or manager development.
The partnership can draw on the wider Humankind team as those needs develop.
What I wish more leaders knew
People decisions can be complex, and that complexity can develop over time. A lack of clarity can impact culture, engagement and performance. A resignation, dispute or performance process may feel sudden, but there have often been signs earlier.
Expectations may have been unclear. A conversation may have been delayed. A manager may have needed more support.
Experienced people support helps leaders recognise those signs and respond sooner.
Good leadership avoids surprises.
When a conversation is likely to surprise someone, it is worth considering what has already been communicated and whether a different approach is needed. When a leader truly listens to understand, the outcome can be different from what they first thought.
"Understanding the business and its people, seeing the wider context and helping leaders create the best possible employee experience is a powerful combination. That's often where the greatest value of an ongoing partnership lies."
