How To Scale the Unscalable

Caring is difficult to scale. Every interaction—both internally and externally—requires greater intention, attention, and energy. Because so much of this depends on the individuals, many believe it doesn’t scale. Organizational caring isn’t a thing.

Initiative is equally difficult to scale. The idea that a person would decide for themselves what needs done and take action before being asked isn’t something that is easily accomplished. Because it is difficult, few try to be proactive as an organization.

Resourcefulness, harnessing the creative powers and imagination, if put to work in an organization would likely allow that group of people to outperform their competitors by the widest of margins. Most would never even consider this a goal.

This may be the first time the words “organizational” and “respect” have been combined. The idea that everyone in an organization would respect all they come in contact with within their organization as well as with those on the outside isn’t something one thinks of scaling. When something is individual, it is perceived as being something that applies to groups—especially large groups.

The idea that these things don’t scale is incorrect. In every case, they scale perfectly well, even if the work involved takes time and energy and effort. Any attribute or value or virtue can scale, and when one of these things scale, the word we use to describe it is “culture.” When a large group of people all believe and act in accordance with a set of values or virtues, you have proof positive that the “soft” stuff that makes any enterprise truly special does indeed scale.

Unfortunately, there are more harmful things that also scale. Scarcity thinking can also spread to become how the enterprise views the world. Victimhood, the idea that the world is working on you without your ability to create a positive future, is easily spread amongst a population, as do negativity, skepticism, cynicism, and negativity. At the heart of each of these beliefs is fear.

If you want to scale your business, the first thing you should scale is the things that most people don’t believe lend themselves to being scaled. When you scale the attributes and virtues and values that build a culture that is positive, optimistic, future-oriented, and empowered, your business will scale on its own power.