There is a pattern that appears in most growing organisations with such consistency it is almost predictable. A person who was excellent, high-performing, and widely trusted in the company's earlier stage starts to struggle as the organisation scales. The presenting diagnosis is usually about the individual: they are not adapting, they are resistant to change, they are stuck in old ways of working. The more accurate diagnosis is usually considerably more complicated, and considerably more useful.
1. The real-world scenario
The attribution error in growing organisations
When people struggle during a period of growth, leaders often locate the problem in the individual before they examine the system. This is a form of what psychologists call fundamental attribution error: the tendency to explain other people's behaviour by their character rather than their circumstances. In organisational settings, this means the person who is underperforming in a scaled context gets labelled as the problem, when what is actually happening is that the environment has changed faster than anyone has helped them adapt.
2. What may be happening
What has usually changed
In a smaller organisation, a high-performer often succeeds through a combination of strong personal relationships, high autonomy, and the ability to move fast with limited formal accountability. As the organisation grows, these conditions change. Decision-making becomes more distributed and more formal. Relationships with new colleagues need to be built from scratch rather than inherited. The speed that was a strength becomes friction when it outpaces the structure. The autonomy that felt empowering begins to look like a failure to collaborate. None of this is the individual's fault. It is the environment shifting around them.
3. Why it lands harder than expected
The role the organisation has not played
Most organisations manage growth by adding structure and expecting people to adapt. Very few organisations name explicitly what the growth is asking of each person, what new skills it requires, what old habits it makes less useful, and what support is available for the transition. The person who was excellent at thirty people and is struggling at one hundred has rarely been told: here is what changed, here is what that means for you specifically, and here is what we are going to do together to help you navigate it.
4. What actually helps
When the problem is genuinely individual
Sometimes, after an honest examination of the system, the conclusion is that the individual is not well-matched to the role the growth has created. This is a legitimate outcome. What changes with this approach is how that conclusion is reached: through genuine investigation rather than early attribution, and with enough honesty to have the actual conversation rather than managing the person out through a slow accumulation of ambiguity.
5. What to try next
A small habit to try
Before concluding that a struggling individual is the problem, ask three questions. What has changed in their environment in the last six to twelve months? What explicit support have they received for that change? And what would I see if I looked at this situation as a system problem rather than a people problem? The answers do not always change the outcome. They almost always improve the quality of what happens next.
Before you decide someone cannot scale, it is worth asking what the organisation has done to help them try.
6. What to design around the role
Three things tend to make a more substantial difference.
Separate capability from changed conditions
Name what the organisation now needs before judging the person.
Map what the role now requires
Distinguish capability from role mismatch or changing conditions.
Name the support gap honestly
Have the honest conversation early enough for options to exist.
Avoid making one person carry a system problem
Protect dignity while deciding what support, redesign or transition is needed.
7. Questions to reflect on
Use these to notice where editing has become the default.
- 01What changed around this person before we judged their performance?
- 02Which old strengths are now less suited to the new conditions?
- 03What support or clarity was never redesigned?
- 04Are we seeing a person problem or a system transition?
Takeaway
People do not fail in growing organisations. People and systems fail together. The most useful leadership response starts with examining both.
Keep the next step clear.