At some point on the growth journey, most leaders reach a point at which they upgrade their organization’s operating system. (even if they don’t explicitly call it that)
Way too often, this upgrade doesn’t result in immediate acceleration and traction. In many cases, it feels like the organization is working FOR the new structures and ways of working, rather than the other way around.
The processes often seem too rigid and theatrical, rather than outcome-oriented.
In this crossover episode with the Scrum.org Community Podcast, Yuval Yeret joins Scrum.org CEO Dave West to unpack why adding these operating systems often slows down most companies instead of making them faster:
The Founder’s Trap: Why the skills that get you to 30 people (and product-market fit) are the wrong skills to get you to 100.
Functional Fiefdoms: How organizing by “departments” (Sales, Marketing, Product) optimizes for silos and guarantees systemic slowdowns.
The “Responsible Adult” Problem: When new leaders, hired to bring order, inadvertently introduce bureaucracy that stifles the system.
Scaling Framework “Theater”: Why so many implementations of EOS, Scaling Up, and OKRs become activity checklists—and how you’re likely serving the framework instead of it serving you.
The Pragmatic Fix: How to break the bottleneck by organizing cross-functional teams around outcomes (like “pipeline health”) instead of org charts.
00:00 Introduction: The Paradox of Growth
00:37 Scaling Challenges in Startups
02:44 The Role of Responsible Adults in Scaling
03:21 Why Scaling Slows Down Organizations
12:18 Cross-Functional Teams and Market Segments
20:29 Operating Systems for Scaling
36:19 Final Thoughts and Reflections
Interested in a deeper dive?
Explore the role of operating systems and frameworks in regaining organizational traction - https://yuvalyeret.com/resources/mastering-organizational-traction-trail-map/
This podcast episode was recorded and published originally on the Scrum.org Community podcast: https://www.scrum.org/resources/scaling-smbs-without-losing-agility
