Today I caught up with my friend and colleague Ben to discuss his new business venture, and as always, we went off topic and started to talk about a subject that comes up often with small to medium business owners:
What really stops a business from growing to the next stage?
There are plenty of external pressures cash flow, competition, market conditions, but consistently, one obstacle consistently shows up.
A business can’t scale when its people are operating from different assumptions, expectations and definitions of how work gets done.
One of the examples I used to explain this in a business setting is through a sporting analogy.
Imagine you bring together athletes from different sporting backgrounds, one from baseball, one from cricket, one from football, one from soccer. Each has skill, experience, and the ability to perform. But each learned under a different rulebook. Now bring them into one organisation and place them onto a basketball court. There is:
No shared training.
No clear playbook.
No explanation of expectations.
And then ask them to win a game.
They’re capable people so how hard would it be to achieve this goal. In business, employees come into our companies with their own history, workplace norms, communication styles, definitions of “good work”, and perceptions of feedback, authority and responsibility.
If a business doesn’t align people to one court, a way of working at your company and one goal, growth becomes difficult. Output slows, decision-making becomes inconsistent, there is confusion amongst teams, customer experience differs, and founders feel like they’re constantly stepping in to course correct.
Where Small Businesses Get Stuck
When a business is small, people learn by osmosis. Communication is organic. The founder sits in the business and usually decisions happen fast.
But as the business grows, that informal approach no longer scales.
Without clarity and alignment, people default to previous experience. We return to what we know or our own frame of reference.
This is where growth stalls.
Not because the team lacks capability, but because everyone is running in a slightly different direction, using slightly different rules which are not always aligned.
How do you get people aligned so the business can scale?
- Define the Game
Businesses often assume people know what “good” looks like, they don’t unless they’re shown or informed.
Clarify:
- What does success look like here?
- What behaviours and decisions reflect our values?
- How do we communicate? Quickly? Formally? With autonomy?
- What are our priorities when deadlines collide?
- What are the functional responsibilities, and who should be informed, consulted, responsible or has authority to make that decision.
- Create a Shared Playbook
A playbook explains how the role works in this environment.
This might include:
- How we approach customers
- How decisions are made
- Response times and standards
- Tools we use and why
- Handovers, approvals and collaboration points
- Onboard With Intention
Induction isn’t forms and logins. It’s cultural integration.
Make space to teach:
- How this business solves problems
- What matters most to the customer
- Why things are done a certain way
- How teams communicate when it’s busy, uncertain or changing
I like to explain induction as having 3 streams –
- Corporate induction
- Functional induction （what are the functions responsible for and key stakeholders）
- Job Induction – this explains the job tasks and expectations.
- Share the end goal – what you want to achieve
People perform better when they know what they’re working toward.
Share goals. Track progress. Make results visible.
Small wins become momentum. Momentum becomes growth.
The Takeaway
Growth isn’t only about sales, product or market opportunity it’s about people moving collectively toward the same destination.
When small businesses define the game, provide a playbook, invest in induction and keep goals visible, they create a workforce that doesn’t just work in the business but works with the business.
