Hypergrowth in a Pandemic

We’ve all seen the challenging shifts in the economy and the descaling sizes of businesses over the past two years. Some employees took a tighter rein on their futures and left their organizations with a renewed purpose (The Great Resignation) while others, unfortunately, didn’t have a choice (in terms of layoffs, furloughs, etc.).

But what about the flipside - companies that experienced challenges due to periods of hypergrowth during the pandemic?

Christopher Lind, who’s been the Vice President, Chief Learning Officer at ChenMed (a small, regional health care group) for the past year, and is the former Head of Global Digital Learning at GE Healthcare, has had such an experience at ChenMed. Here is their story.


Tell us a little about ChenMed and what hypergrowth has looked like for the company?

ChenMed provides VIP preventative care for underserved populations. On the surface, it sounds like a terrible business idea – going after people who don’t have money and, instead, treating them and preventing them from getting sick. You’d think…where’s the money in that?

But we’re solving a major healthcare problem – and who doesn’t want to be part of a purpose-driven organization, especially these days?

Also, Medicare is realizing providers are spending more money than we have on healthcare. So, we’re proving that we can reduce costs by preventing issues and getting better outcomes in the first place while reaching a population that we didn’t have access to before. And people are talking about it. ChenMed was one of the organizations that figured out how to do it. How does that not grow?

To take a step back, for me, hypergrowth means - from an impact learning standpoint - the growth arc is moving faster than the business, technology and people can keep up. ChenMed has been on a trajectory of hypergrowth for the past few years, expanding quickly around the United States – but with that comes some pain points too.

What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in terms of hypergrowth?

Content development, program design, micro/personalized training, new technology, onboarding strategy, community, connection, mentoring being more vital – you name it.

The traditional means of L&D can’t keep up – we’re not meeting business needs, not moving fast enough, don’t have the right infrastructure, and we’re bringing in so many people into a completely disruptive environment. We couldn’t keep up in a mature organization either, but today we can’t afford to approach things in a slow, academic way. It’s like oil and water.

Employees on one hand are usually more on board with change than we think, but it’s hard to ask people to change without a reason. The number one reason people aren’t self-developing is that they feel like they don’t have enough time, yet we all have the same 24 hours in a day. How are some managing to get some things done while others aren’t? It’s all a mindset. People are quick to write off learning if they don’t see an immediate change, so we need to show them why they need it and what it means in terms of their identity and development. You’re either developing or you’re dying.

"Development is a way of thinking, not a place you go or a thing you consume.”

Did you bring any best practices over from General Electric that helped?

When you’re coming from a big organization, the tendency is to be like Mary Poppins – opening up your bag and sharing all of the tools you have. But it’s a different environment here. We’re not focusing on technology for the sake of technology. The key to sharing your tools is knowing why they worked, deconstructing them to determine the key to success.

It’s a big threat if we approach development and technology as “watch this,” or “do this.” We’re good at listening to respond/react, not to understand, then just moving onto the next shiny technology object, but did you test it? Do you know what problem it’s solving, and can you create a narrative around it?

There’s a lot of under-utilized technology in our space with different pain points of adoption, but really it’s about understanding learning in the flow of work and the automation processes of technology. Learning leaders don’t think about it that way, but in 2022 they should be.

If we had taken a traditional L&D approach, we’d have seen there’s not enough leadership training and it would have been easy to react to create a leadership academy. But with the pandemic, we’d probably have been disappointed because no one can attend in person or use the content the same way. So we asked follow-up questions – what would be beneficial? What do you mean by leadership training?

It's like that Henry Ford quote, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” We need to listen to what they’re really saying, not just the words coming out of their mouth.

What are some other key things you’re finding that are helping with success?

We’re still in a distributed workforce, so from a skills standpoint, we’re making sure managers know how to build relationships and create trust. The pandemic exposed that a lot of managers aren’t good at this, but it should be a strategic imperative to be able to connect digitally.

Previously, the environment of being in the same building made it easier to see each other (and the butts in seats), but they didn’t truly know how to connect with their team. So now we’re trying to model what good looks like in a digital space – more efficient, effective and personalized.

One way we’re doing this is through social learning: we’re bringing all levels together for 45 minutes around a real story from the company to discuss it, sharing challenges and best practices.


How do you know you’re scaling development and culture effectively?

We have key indicator wins to show if we’re on the right track.

Technology is really changing the way we approach things. For example, with content development, by the time you create it, it’s often out of date. It’s bulky and people can’t find it. Our new strategy is to use technology tools that offer rapid development to design content quickly – it scans, understands and tags people so they can find it and move on.

We’re trying not to let ROI get in the way of progress. Another example, for our new hire experience program, we have clear metrics on what the pain points are. We created a Leader Lab in a week and half and are getting immediate, quick feedback by asking people if they find value in it.


Do you think hypergrowth has been harder/easier because of our more digital world?

There are elements that are harder because people are adjusting to doing more, in new ways of working that’s adding stress, and they’re wondering when/if they’re going back to the office, or if they even want to. They’re using new technology and nobody’s slowing down. On the flip side, some of the best lessons come out of being in between a rock and hard place. We just have to go with it, and let some things fail.


A final thought to leave our readers with?

Leaders posture like they have all the answers, but nobody does. I have yet to meet a single person who has it all figured out. People feel bad that they haven’t cracked it yet, but just remember, you’re in the same boat as everybody else. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other.