Managing Your Multi-Campus Team

Alright…from the site stats, there is huge interest in the whole multi-campus thing.

That being said…my best advice is still exactly that.  You can see that HERE.

If you are going to ignore me…or you have a great answer to the questions I asked…let’s talk campuses.

The first thing I think you have to think about is a multi-campus model.

So…lets begin with the basics.

How many campuses are you thinking?

(Not that you need to know for sure…just give me a minimum-Is it more than 2?)

Here’s why I ask this question.

In my experience, moving from 1 to 2 campuses was incredibly tough.  There are tons of things to think about.  People at the first campus are often loaded up with some extra work to make up for a lack of staff at the new campus.  They also have to  teach the new folks how to handle things.  Money is limited and there is twice as much to buy.  etc…etc.

We had to figure out unwritten rules and strategies to get information, content, and talent where it needed to be and when it needed to be there.  All of our departments worked hard and did an awesome job.

Some departments came up with elaborate schemes and systems..

some just relied on communication and trust…

all came up with a plan that worked for their people.  Every department did their own thing.

When we launched the third campus I thought that it would be more of the same.  Wow! Was I wrong.

Our problem was that we all kept doing the things that worked for our second campus with the thirde…and they weren’t working great.

Here’s what happened in my opinion.

When there are just two of you, you can base your systems on relationships.  You do this all the time with people.  You adjust your work day to work with the personalities you work with.  This is one of the reason it’s hard to put a new member on the team.  They don’t just have to get used to the team, you have to get used to the new team, and the dynamics they bring as well.

Our problem on our team was, not that we were changing out team members, It was that we were adding team members!   Another team member with the exact same job description and a whole new personality…with similar but different expectations.  And…who knows how many more are coming!

We, in middle school, had built our system for two campuses as though there were always going to be two campuses.

The result was, that when we moved to three, we had to go through the struggle of figuring out our mistake, and then we had to create new systems.   Systems that couldn’t be personality driven!  If they were, guess what we were going to have to do for #4?

So, my second piece of advice (beyond my best piece discussed above) is this:

Plan for the future and act like you have more than two campuses from the beginning.

Ask yourself if the decisions you are making about structure and systems work for more than two campuses right off the bat.  Act like then is now.

I’ve got some ideas on what that looks like too…check back for my next post.