🌱 What Stage Is Your Team Actually In?
This is a question I ask at one point or another to most founders and entrepreneurs I work with. I’ve even found it works well for senior leaders tasked with launching a new product or venture within an existing organization.
It builds off the classic model Churchill and Lewis developed, which outlines the stages businesses go through as they seek to grow — from “existence” through “maturity.” Each stage in the model has key features and opportunities for failure and success in response to specific challenges to the business.
Credit: Adapted from Churchill and Lewis, Harvard Business Review
The picture helps, right? You can start to see how an organization evolves — and where things tend to get bumpy.
The Problem: Growth Slows When We Neglect the Human Element
I like this model for a few reasons.
First, the original article has a lot of pictures. And I find the leaders I coach need a lot of pictures to stick with an article.
I’m kidding! Of course I’m kidding. My leaders do fine. (The pictures are for me. I need them. I never would’ve made it through the article initially if not for the pictures.)
But seriously — the visuals are helpful. They show how different components of an organization shift as the business grows. And even though growth isn’t linear, and every organization is in some degree of flux, the model makes it easier to name what’s changing and what needs attention.
And one component that shows up again and again in this framework?
People.
You can often identify what stage an organization is in just by looking at what’s going on with their people.
- Do they have the right people?
- Do those people have the right skills, experience, and focus?
- Are they in the right seats?
- Are they engaged? Are they invested?
Because for better or worse, how leaders answer those questions usually reflects what stage the organization is actually in — not just what stage they hope they’re in.
The Solution: Build With Your People, Not Around Them
If we’re serious about building our businesses for sustainable growth, step one is to start asking better questions about our people — and giving the answers the attention they deserve.
Churchill and Lewis’ work suggests that as we increase the capacity and engagement of our workforce, we move our organizations toward the next stage of growth.
That means we don’t just look at product fit, systems, or funding. We look at how our people are showing up — and how we’re showing up for them.
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So what about you?
What stage are you in with your people?
How do you see their engagement driving growth in this stage?
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🌱 Need Help Plotting Your Stage — and What Comes Next?
We offer free consultation sessions where we can walk through where you’re at in the growth model and how your people are shaping what’s next. Drop me a line or schedule your consultation with Jason Abell, President of Rewire here.
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🗞️ If this resonated with you, there’s more where that came from. Subscribe to our Leadership Insights newsletter for deeper dives, exclusive resources, and actionable strategies to help you build a business that doesn’t just grow—it scales sustainably.
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Written by: Steve Longan, Director of Coach Training Programs
