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The More You Grow: RBBB’s Excellent Plan for Program Growth

Once upon a time, there was only one “employee” at Read Better Be Better — founder and CEO, Sophie Etchart. Of course, there was also me, but I’m RBBB’s official mascot. (Not to mention their dashing digital spokesman.)

But when your mission is to solve Arizona’s literacy crisis, stagnancy is simply not an option.

This is what motivated Sophie to create an aggressive growth strategy that has RBBB expanding by one school district every semester for the next five years.

In fact, we went from serving 32 kids per semester to serving 1,400 kids per semester in just two years. (I told you we’re not fans of stagnancy!)

With Great Growth Comes Great Responsibility

Our commitment to excellence has never wavered since our pilot program debuted in 2014, and we’re incredibly proud of how far we’ve come.

We now have 31 team members and our very-first official office (the latter of which includes a dedicated battery-recharging station for RBBB’s resident robot, might I add!).

But a larger team is also why Sophie made the difficult decision to stop growth for one semester so we could focus on reinforcing the internal structure that supports our program.

An Excellent Organizational Development Strategy

It’s hard to turn down opportunities for growth, but Read Better Be Better is about striving for excellence, not accepting mediocrity. We are dedicated to providing the highest-quality program possible — and that means taking the time to ensure our foundation remains strong — no matter how much we expand in the future.

For this reason, we’ve been busy adding in more layers of quality control, including a workforce development program for staff members, and an overall organizational development strategy. Part of this strategy was the addition of Suzanne Brimley, our operations manager, who will ensure that all of our departments, from marketing to administration, are running at maximum efficiency.

As we continue to grow (and you know we have big plans for that), we’ll be supporting and nurturing not only our program, but the people and processes that comprise it. Organizational development will be an ongoing strategy that helps us handle rapid growth and constant improvement without missing a beat.

Want to get in on all the excitement? We’re always looking for site leaders and volunteers (no robots, please — we have that covered) to join our organization.

Dr. Dave signing off!

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