What Career Professionals Can Learn from Scaling Up
Assuming the same informal way you've managed a growing workload will keep working as responsibilities grow 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 clear on who owns what
A team's smooth functioning depends heavily on who is doing what, and unclear ownership quietly causes confusion and duplicated effort.
Two colleagues both assume the other is handling a particular task, and it doesn't get done consistently because no one is clearly accountable.
Pick one area where ownership between you and a colleague is unclear, and get explicit agreement on who owns it.
Build priorities simple enough to communicate clearly
Priorities that live only in your head, or that are too complicated to state simply, can't actually guide the people you work with.
A professional has a clear sense of what matters most this quarter but never states it simply to their team, and colleagues make inconsistent decisions because they're each guessing at priorities that were never spelled out.
Write your top priority for this quarter in one sentence simple enough that a colleague 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 team aligned and moving, rather than drifting into confusion.
A team only addresses misalignment informally and sporadically, and small problems go unnoticed until they've already cost real time.
Set a short, recurring check-in whose only job is to confirm everyone is still on track with the top priorities.
Manage your time and workload deliberately, not as an afterthought
Running out of the time or capacity a demanding role actually requires, even while things look manageable on the surface, is one of the most common ways professionals burn out, and it requires active, ongoing attention rather than periodic review.
Handling today's urgent request and building the discipline to manage a growing workload aren't opposites — the discipline is what prevents today's request from becoming a much bigger problem later.
Name one thing, honestly
Is there an area of your work right now where ownership between you and a colleague 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 on track with the top priorities.