Marco van Sterkenburg and Thomas Goossens came up with the idea for Drillster. Their company now provides an advanced e-learning solution that uses neuroscience, AI and data. This is how Drillster ensures that people not only learn but also retain important competencies and skills. In this article, Marco explains how Summiteers' scale-up organization scan revealed valuable development points within Drillster. He also explains how the scan led to concrete improvements in Drillster's organizational structure and staff development.

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The scale-up organization scan

I had been to an event that organizes Summiteers for scale-ups a number of times before. That always gave me a positive feeling. The conversation with other scale-ups, among other things, is enriching; it makes you realize that you are not alone with your challenges, but that other scale-ups are experiencing similar problems. When I heard about Summiteers' scale-up organization scan, I immediately thought: that's something for us! This is because the scale-up organization scan helps companies to stop, zoom out and quickly identify possible growing pains by means of a questionnaire for all employees & management. We are a typical growing organization that tries with a lot of passion and enthusiasm to keep everything running smoothly. Whether we also always take a structural approach to that? I hoped that the scan would give us a boost by revealing our areas for improvement. And that's what it did.

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The most important development points: a link with strategy & people development

The most important development point that emerged during the scan and subsequent discussions was that our staff was not really well aware of our vision, mission and strategy. They were unable to make the link between what we do as an organization and how that relates to that vision, mission and strategy. We have certainly shared these with our people, but apparently not frequently enough.

Another remarkable point was that our people development — such as training opportunities or growth opportunities within the organization — is still really in its infancy. We will take this up, but it is too ad hoc and there is little policy behind it. If we want people to commit to us longer, we need to structure this more.

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Share results & discuss follow-up actions

As a management team, we discussed the results of the scan with Summiteers in December 2023, where development points emerged. To address these development points, we held a session with our entire team in early 2024 as a follow-up to the scan. In this session, supervised by Jaap Wagenaar from Summiteers, we discussed the results of the scan and discussed the follow-up actions. To immediately follow up on one of the development points, we shared our vision, mission and strategy with the entire team again on the spot.

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Follow-up actions

We asked our people to help develop a more comprehensive career plan. Various departments provided input and together we came to a structured plan. This has led to a number of concrete follow-up agreements, which we will further develop in the course of 2024. When it comes to strategy, we have realized that we also need to apply the key points of the Drillster methodology (repetition & retention) much more to our own vision, mission and strategy. This is how we develop more awareness within the team about the direction in which we want to develop as a company and how everyone can contribute to that.

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Pragmatic approach

We found the cooperation with Summiteers to be very positive. I think the structure that Summiteers provided gave our people a safe platform to express their thoughts and needs, even for those who don't find it so easy. The fact that Jaap shared the results of the scan helped enormously to get the message across properly. As a management, you often have a gut feeling about where improvements are possible, but it's quite another thing to be confronted with those points in such an independent and objective way. That is very valuable. It motivates and encourages action. What particularly appealed to us is the pragmatic nature of Summiteers' approach, which suits us. The result of the scan and advice about this ensured that we were able to immediately apply improvements to our organization. We received practical, easy-to-implement advice that we can work with ourselves. This takes us beyond a report that disappears somewhere in a drawer to dust.

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Tip for other scale-ups

I know quite a few scale-ups who face the same challenges as us. Such a scale-up organization scan can be extremely useful for them. People do great things out of great enthusiasm, but find the time to see where you stand and what areas for improvement you can tackle in the short term. In our opinion, the Summiteers process is a perfect fit for scale-ups in every way.

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Want to know more about the scale-up organization scan?

Would you like to exchange views on your challenges to grow effectively or explore whether the scale-up organization scan is valuable for your organization? Then contact gash whether Paul.

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