What Leaders and Managers Can Learn from Scaling Up
Assuming the same informal way of running your team that worked when it was smaller will keep working as it grows is the specific trap Scaling Up names, and it's an easy one to fall into when things have worked out fine so far.
The whole book, compressed
This edition works through 4 core lessons — take them one at a time, not all at once.
What's different for your conditions
Tap whichever ones sound like you. Nothing here is sent or saved — it's just for your own noticing.
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The core lessons, applied to you
Get the right people in the right roles, with clear ownership
A growing team's success depends heavily on who is doing what, and unclear roles or a mismatch between a person and their role quietly caps how far the team can grow.
A manager has two people who both think they own a particular responsibility, and important decisions get delayed or duplicated because no one is clearly accountable.
Pick one area of your team where ownership is unclear, and name one specific person as the sole owner of it.
Build priorities simple enough for everyone to act on
Priorities that live only in the manager's head, or that are too complicated to explain in plain terms, can't actually guide daily decisions across a growing team.
A manager makes trade-offs in their own head without ever writing them down simply, and the team makes inconsistent decisions because they're each guessing at priorities the manager never actually stated.
Write your team's current top priority in one sentence simple enough that any team member could repeat it back accurately.
Execute through a small number of shared priorities and a disciplined rhythm
A regular, disciplined rhythm of short check-ins focused on a small number of priorities keeps a growing team aligned and moving, rather than drifting in different directions.
A manager only checks in with the team informally and sporadically, and small misalignments go unnoticed until they've already cost real time.
Set a short, recurring check-in whose only job is to confirm everyone is still working toward the same small set of priorities.
Manage capacity and resources deliberately, not as an afterthought
Running out of the time, budget, or capacity a team actually needs, even for a team that looks productive on the surface, is one of the most common ways growing teams fail, and it requires active, ongoing attention rather than periodic review.
Handling today's operational fire and building the discipline to scale your team aren't opposites — the discipline is what prevents today's fire from becoming a much bigger one as the team grows.
Name one thing, honestly
Is there an area of your team right now where ownership is genuinely unclear?
Good. Now look back at the "Try this" line under whichever lesson feels most connected to what you just wrote, and treat that as this week's actual assignment — not all 4 at once.
The practices from this edition
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Run this for seven days
Set a short, recurring check-in whose only job is to confirm everyone is still working toward the same small set of priorities.