GrowthForge: Field Notes #5

 One of the quieter shifts that happens as businesses grow is not a loss of capability, but a change in how decisions move through the organisation.

Early on, decisions tend to be fast. Not always perfect, but fast enough. People act close to the work, adjust as they go, and learn quickly from the consequences. The owner is near most things, so judgement calls happen in context and the feedback loop is short.

As the business grows, that dynamic changes.

More people are involved. The consequences of decisions feel heavier. The owner becomes less available, but still carries the final say on most matters of consequence. Without anyone quite noticing, decisions that were once made close to the work begin to travel upward.

This doesn’t happen because people suddenly become incapable or risk-averse. It happens because the system no longer makes it clear who owns what.

At first, it shows up as caution. People check before acting. They seek reassurance. They wait for confirmation, not because they don’t know what to do, but because they’re unsure whether they’re allowed to do it.

Over time, that caution turns into congestion.

Decisions queue.

Issues linger.

Meetings fill with discussion but produce little movement.

From the outside, this often looks like a people problem. Leaders may describe it as a lack of accountability, commercial judgement, or confidence. Teams are labelled as hesitant or dependent. Training is discussed. Performance is questioned.

In practice, the pattern is usually structural.

When decision rights aren’t explicit, people protect themselves by escalating. When authority is ambiguous, judgement drifts upward to the person who feels safest to carry it. When consequences aren’t clearly bounded, escalation becomes the least risky option.

That person is almost always the owner.

What makes this particularly difficult to untangle is that owners often reinforce the pattern without intending to. Wanting to keep things moving, they step in. They answer quickly. They override small decisions to avoid delay or friction.

It works in the moment. It also teaches the organisation exactly where decisions really live.

Over time, the business becomes dependent on that intervention. People learn, often unconsciously, that acting without confirmation carries more risk than waiting. The owner becomes the decision engine, even as the organisation around them grows larger and more complex.

This is one of the reasons growth can feel heavier instead of freeing.

The owner is busier than ever, not because others aren’t capable, but because the system is pulling decisions upward rather than distributing them. Effort increases, but flow decreases. Everyone is working hard, yet progress feels slow and fragile.

At this point, the instinctive response is often to tighten control. More approvals. More reporting. More oversight. The hope is that clarity will come through visibility.

Sometimes that helps at the margins. More often, it adds another layer that decisions have to pass through, increasing the very congestion it was meant to solve.

Healthy growing businesses don’t eliminate escalation. They make it intentional.

They distinguish between decisions that genuinely need to travel upward and those that should be made closer to the work. They define decision boundaries rather than rules, and they are explicit about the level of judgement expected at different points in the organisation.  Crucially, they create protection for people who make reasonable decisions within those bounds, even when outcomes aren’t perfect. Without that protection, escalation will always feel safer than action.

When decision flow is designed deliberately, something subtle but important shifts. People move again. Decisions travel shorter distances. The owner steps back without the business stalling or wobbling.

The organisation begins to carry its own weight.

Decision-making becomes quieter, not louder. There are fewer dramatic moments, fewer urgent interruptions, fewer things that “only the owner can decide”.

And growth starts to feel lighter, not because there is less work to do, but because the load is being carried where it should be.

If that feels familiar and you’d like to talk it through, you’re welcome to book a short exploratory conversation.