In the early stages of building a company, results often speak for themselves. You implement strong systems, hire smart people, and see a clear return. But at a certain point, that momentum slows. Growth plateaus. What used to work doesn’t work as well anymore—and the solutions that got you here suddenly feel… insufficient.
So what’s going on?
The Problem: Systems Are Built for Yesterday’s Reality
Many businesses follow a familiar trajectory: they scale with operational systems that are built to solve the challenges of a specific moment in time. Those systems—whether they're processes, policies, or performance frameworks—are meant to create consistency and clarity. And they do… until the business environment shifts.
Markets evolve. Customer expectations rise. Your service offering changes. And yet, the systems stay the same.
The result? The very structures designed to drive performance become barriers to it. As Harvard researchers Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey put it, companies often become “immune to change”—not because their people lack skill, but because the systems around them were never built for the next stage of growth.
The Real Growth Lever: Your People’s Capacity to Adapt
Here’s what successful leaders eventually realize: the only asset in your business capable of evolving with complexity is your people.
Systems don’t change themselves. Structures don’t recognize when they’re outdated. But your people can—if they’ve been equipped not just to do, but to adapt … and grow.
This is where many organizations miss the mark. They invest in technical upskilling or performance reviews, but not in helping people expand their thinking, build resilience, and develop the mindset to navigate ambiguity. And without that inner growth, even your most talented team members hit a ceiling.
It’s not that they’re not capable. It’s that no one’s invested in helping them move beyond the boundaries of their past experience.
How to Build a Team That Fuels (Not Slows) Growth
If your systems were built to solve yesterday’s problems, then your people must be developed to solve tomorrow’s. That starts by building a culture where growth isn’t just expected—it’s supported.
Here are four ways to begin:
- Engage professional coaches: Especially those trained in mindset development. Coaching helps high performers uncover blind spots, expand self-awareness, and shift limiting habits—creating ripple effects across your org.
- Create individual development plans: Generic programs don’t address real needs. Invest in tailored pathways aligned with both the company’s goals and each team member’s potential.
- Make development ongoing, not episodic: Leadership isn’t learned in one workshop. Continuous coaching, feedback, and real-time learning drive meaningful behavior change.
- Model the mindset you want to see: Senior leaders set the tone. When you invest in and share your own learning journey, others are more likely to follow suit.
Yes, this kind of investment takes time and resources. But the cost of not doing it is far greater—stagnation, burnout, disengagement, turnover and decline. By developing your people, you're not only enhancing their capabilities but also ensuring that all your other business investments—your systems, structures, and processes—can continue to evolve and deliver results through all phases of your business cycle.
Especially during inflection points like fast growth, M&A, or restructuring, the companies that rise above are those whose people have the inner tools to meet outer complexity. If you're in a valley looking to regain momentum, focused talent development may be the key to reigniting your progress.
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Ready to implement a people development program at your company?
👉 Book a free consultation with Jason Abell, President of Rewire, to explore how our science-backed mindset coaching, training intensives, and live events can help you and your teams adapt for growth.
Written by: Steve Scanlon, CEO
