The Growth Ceiling and How to Break It
Most companies hit a point where the effort is high, the intent is good, and yet growth starts to slow.
Teams push harder than ever to move the dial, but the system underneath them can’t keep up. Progress becomes harder, more expensive, and less predictable despite the often heroic effort people put in. All because the structure can’t handle the load.
Larry Greiner’s Growth Model (1972) got one thing right: every stage of growth introduces more complexity than the last.
What it didn’t account for is how that complexity insidiously fractures the revenue chain.
Signals become noisier.
Demand becomes less qualified.
Deals age in the pipeline.
Delivery strains under volume.
Retention weakens around the edges.
By the time leaders can feel the slowdown, the system has already drifted out of alignment.
The Real Ceiling
Most companies try to push through the stall with more activity.
More leads. More selling motions. More headcount.
All that does is multiply the inconsistencies.
Marketing ramps volume, but the pipeline can’t process what comes in.
Sales chase deals that never should have entered the funnel.
Service carries the downstream cost of upstream disorder.
The ceiling isn’t the market. It’s the way the revenue chain is wired.
Where Breakthroughs Actually Come From
Companies that break through this ceiling don’t work harder. They restore the integrity of the system.
They align signals with demand.
They clean the handoffs between lead, qualify, and convert.
They stabilise delivery so retention becomes a growth engine, not a rescue mission.
They build a rhythm that lets every stage reinforce the next.
Growth accelerates not because the team does more, but because the system stops leaking.
If You’re Feeling the Ceiling
It’s not a motivation problem.
It’s not a market problem.
It’s a structural problem waiting to be made visible.
