Why is it important to invest in personal growth?

Growing yourself or your people can feel challenging – like climbing a mountain or embarking on any new adventure, it’s hard if you don’t have a map, if you don’t have the right tools, or if you’re experiencing bad weather.

Individuals need the tools and structure to tackle those changes – whether it’s a professional or personal mountain—or multiple mountains at the same time—teams and individuals need the map, tools, and weather forecasts to successfully reach their peaks—with the S Curve™, the Seven Accelerants of Growth, and the Ecosystem for Growth.

A Case for Growth

How do you know you need to focus on personal growth?

Growth leaders generate 80% more value than their peers – and yet, often the focus of growth at an organization is on the bottom line or metrics that are based on anything other than the leader or the individuals in the organization. Why? Because these metrics are easier to identify and track.

The need for a focus on growth can look like:

Leaders who lack the interpersonal skills to effectively manage change, including creating a culture where change can happen.
Organizational strategies that help meet business goals but exclude or silo people-centric approaches.
Individuals who are not performing at anticipated levels because they aren’t leveraging the strengths they need for their current position, rather than the ones that got them to the position.
The transition of leaders into new roles or out of current ones.
Teams that don’t collaborate well, often accompanied by tension between team members.
Organizations and teams that are slow and inefficient when forced to adjust to change.
New teams that will quickly need to collaborate effectively in order to produce desired results.
Teams that are not meeting expectations or that have been identified as underperforming.

S Curve Overview

What is the S Curve?

The S Curve is a visual model of the learning/growth process – every time someone embarks on a journey of learning new skills or adapting to a new situation, they progress through the three phases of the S Curve model. Everett Rogers originally used this model in the 1960s to demonstrate the adoption of innovations, and today it’s often used to help organizations plan for growth trajectories and change management. More than a decade ago, as the team at the Disruptive Innovation Fund was applying this model to investing, Whitney Johnson had the a-ha that the S Curve could help navigate the emotional terrain of change for individuals and teams as well. Since then, Whitney and the team at Disruption Advisors have codified the idea into a robust framework centered around disruption and growth.

S Curves map progress toward Mastery, not expertise – don’t confuse the final stage of the S Curve (Mastery) for expertise. The S Curve maps specific skill development. For example, if you take up the ukulele and set out to master playing five songs, you have reached the top of the S Curve for learning five songs. You didn’t become an expert in all matters ukulele; if you decided to learn five more songs, you would start at the bottom of the S Curve again, though your ascent would likely be quicker as you are building off the previous curve.

The emotional experience of growth is a dopamine management exercise – our brains are constantly making predictions about what will happen. Dopamine, the feel-good chemical responsible for making us feel motivated, spikes when we predict something correctly so that we want to do it again—it motivates us. Navigating the emotional journey of growth requires understanding and utilizing dopamine through all three phases.

Stage	Description	What the learner is experiencing

1. Launch Point	Individuals begin a new learning experience or project at the Launch Point. Progress feels slow and is often accompanied by a sense of discomfort or struggle as the individual begins to evaluate the new situation/ challenge.	This is when people are most likely to feel overwhelmed and frustrated and to encounter imposter syndrome. Although dopamine levels are low during this stage—leading to feelings of discouragement—this is often when rapid learning takes place.


2. Sweet Spot	As individuals continue to experiment and invest effort in the new experience, they transition into the Sweet Spot–represented by the steep middle part of the S Curve. Growth accelerates and the individual makes rapid progress to reach new achievements as they develop the skill. Individuals reach optimal performance during this stage, and leaders should help employees spend as much time in the Sweet Spot as possible.	People feel energized, excited, and motivated due to increased dopamine levels, higher confidence, and the new alignment of their goals and capabilities. Work is most enjoyable during this stage, and people often feel like they’re in a “flow state” when working.


3. Mastery	Once individuals have achieved a high level of proficiency with their new skill, they enter the Mastery phase, represented by the flat top of the S Curve. This stage entails a high level of competence and a subsequent plateauing of growth. This is when individuals need to find a new challenge, whether that’s within their current domain or a new S Curve altogether.	Once people reach Mastery, the sense of accomplishment they feel is tempered by a decrease in dopamine and an increase in potential boredom or stagnation.

How do you audit your own and your team’s place on the S Curve?

Individuals should regularly self-audit to understand their own learning journey – the simplicity and visual nature of the S Curve model make it an ideal tool for self-assessment. By mapping their position on the S Curve and identifying which stage they’re in, individuals gain immediate insights into their growth trajectory and a better understanding of their own learning process. Awareness allows for a more active role in enabling future development.

Use S Curve auditing tools to better understand individual progress – specialized S Curve tools can enhance the accuracy and depth of the assessment process by providing structured frameworks for individuals and teams to evaluate their current status, identify growth accelerants, and assess environmental conditions influencing growth. These tools translate personal observations into quantitative insights that help both leaders and employees understand what’s working and what isn’t.

How can the S Curve help your team grow?

S Curves make the disruption of personal growth easier to monitor and understand – by understanding the distinct stages of the learning process, individuals can approach new opportunities with greater clarity and resilience. Both employees and leaders benefit from being able to recognize the challenges and rewards associated with each stage of the process, and this insight helps individuals stay motivated in their roles and maximize personal and professional potential.

S Curve audit findings should drive meaningful conversations with managers – many of the indicators of S Curve stage are interpersonal and emotional, so it’s beneficial for employees to transparently discuss S Curve progress with their managers. Self-audit findings can be brought to check-ins with managers to ensure employees align personal growth objectives with organizational goals. Comparing assessments of S Curve progress between managers and employees also enables managers to support and track the growth journey.

Consider how employee context can improve S Curve progress – department- or organization-wide audits can help determine whether the team as a whole is progressing at the rate it needs to. Examine factors such as culture, access to resources, and leadership support to confirm that your organization is creating conditions that are conducive to growth.

How should a manager change their approach as their employees progress through the three phases of the S Curve?

Launch Point
Manager Approach	Patient and supportive

Manager Role	At the Launch Point, employees require a lot of support and guidance as they navigate new roles or projects. Managers need to allocate time to provide necessary training, clarify expectations, and help employees understand their responsibilities and stakeholders.

Sweet Spot
Manager Approach	Focused, respectful, and encouraging
Manager Role	In the Sweet Spot, employees are increasingly competent and are therefore often flooded with new tasks, requests, and opportunities. Managers should help these individuals stay focused so that they don’t get overwhelmed and thrown off track. Help Sweet Spot employees prioritize their new opportunities by giving them the ability and permission to say no—and by reinforcing that they’re performing well and making the right decision when they realize they can’t take on everything at once. Your goal is to protect their learning trajectory while keeping them motivated.

Mastery
Manager Approach	Challenging and empowering
Manager Role	Employees in the Mastery phase may start to underperform if they become bored or disengaged. Managers need to find new ways to challenge them through new S Curves, micro S Curves within their current Curves, or training others to help them reach their own Sweet Spots. It’s crucial to empower employees in Mastery by providing them with autonomy, mentorship/ leadership opportunities, and other opportunities for growth.

Disruption Along the S Curve

Why is disruption important to growth?

Tools of disruption foster growth along the S Curve – tools of personal disruption are strategies and behaviors that accelerate an individual’s growth. Different tools work better for different individuals or different S Curves, but the high-level approach of leveraging strengths, addressing constraints, and prioritizing rest and reflection apply to all journeys of personal innovation.

Disruption is a catalyst for innovation – disruption pushes individuals and organizations out of their comfort zones by breaking established patterns, accelerating progress, and fostering creativity and problem-solving. By changing the stakes and creating urgency around change, disruption forces evolution and provides an opportunity to ask how things could be different or better.

Personal disruption drives growth on a physiological level – personal disruption is a deliberate process of self-innovation that allows individuals to grow in their careers and personal lives. By challenging individuals to think and act in new ways, disruption rewires neural pathways and increases confidence as new challenges are overcome.

How can organizations build a culture that handles disruption in a healthy way?

Proactively prepare your organization for the “Contagion Effect” – disruption ripples across organizations because individuals and key activities are interconnected. When leaders embrace disruption, they signal to the team that change and growth are valued, and they create a culture of psychological safety where team members feel comfortable taking risks. Organizations that constructively embrace disruption typically exhibit improved agility and adaptability.

Align organizational goals with the benefits of disruption – use strategic priorities to guide the impact of disruption across your organization. Channel disruption’s potentially chaotic effects into a vehicle for transformative change by harnessing the innovation, adaptability, and sustainable growth mindset it creates.

What are the Seven Accelerants of Growth associated with personal disruption?

Accelerant 1: Take the Right Risks
Understand the difference in opportunity between competitive risk and market risk – competitive risk indicates that an opportunity has already been identified. It’s now up to you to compete and win. Market risk embraces the theory of disruption by identifying new problems that need to be solved, therefore creating new opportunities that you have a better chance of achieving because others aren’t even aware that they need to compete for them.

hen you play where no one else is playing, you’re 6X more likely to succeed, and revenue opportunity is 20X greater – disruptors create new opportunities instead of competing with others for existing ones. Amateurs compete and professionals create.

Taking the Right Risks Example: There’s a promotional path that already exists, and you can apply for it and compete with others to try to get the job (competitive risk). If you recognize there’s another important problem to be solved that that job posting won’t address—and you convince your stakeholders to create another job position—you will be the only candidate for that job (market risk). You’ll 1) have a much higher chance of securing the position and 2) ensure that you’re creating value by capitalizing on this newly identified opportunity.

Accelerant 2: Play to Your Distinctive Strengths
Don’t leave natural advantages on the table – many people don’t realize the value of their strengths because they take them for granted. Recognize what your strengths can do for you, and don’t be afraid to own them. It’s easier to play where you’re strong. Accelerate your move up the S Curve by playing to pre-existing strengths. These areas are naturally easier for you, so it’s worth taking the time to evaluate your own abilities and how they compare to others.

Accelerant 3: Embrace Constraints
Limitations become excuses if you don’t acknowledge their implications – it’s tempting to go down the “if only” rabbit hole–”I would be able to move along this curve if only I had more time and money.” Understand your limitations and decide if they can be changed, or if you need to find a more creative way to work within your constraints. Constraints are more powerful obstacles when you don’t embrace them. Constraints can motivate us by becoming goals – some constraints can change. They can become deadlines or areas of opportunity which are positive targets that naturally incentivize our minds. Repositioning constraints as opportunities or concrete goals is a powerful mental trick that prevents individuals from getting in the way of their own potential.

Embracing Constraints Example: “I only have until next year to get a promotion, and I can’t get that promotion because my XYZ skills aren’t strong enough” becomes “If I can develop my XYZ skills over the next 8 months, I can go for this important promotion”.

Accelerant 4: Examine Expectations
Manage your “shoulds” so you can spend time creating rather than competing – we always have expectations around how we should be performing, or how far along an S Curve we should be at any given time. Getting caught up in the “shoulds” creates a victim mentality that prevents us from disrupting and moving forward. Catch yourself when you think of “shoulds” and re-prioritize your energy to focus on the present.

Accelerant 5: Step Back to Grow
Progress can require taking a step back to reflect – disruption must be thoughtfully leveraged to bring about significant benefits, and progress isn’t always linear. Don’t get caught up in the chaos of always driving forward; instead, deliberately pause to reevaluate where you want to go (and how you want to get there). In the long run, taking a step back will enable you to slingshot forward and be more successful in achieving your real goals.

Accelerant 6: Leverage Failure
Failure can be a motivational and informative tool – some of the most impressive achievements are only made possible due to failure. Each failure is a learning opportunity, a datapoint that helps you optimize and adapt to new situations. Separate failure from shame – failure itself is not usually a problem. Shame is the problem we associate with failure. Put in the internal work to understand that failure is not a judgmental reflection on you but an unavoidable part of the learning process. This puts you in a frame of mind to use failure as a tool for growth instead of being afraid of it.

Accelerant 7: Be Discovery Driven
Adapt your plan based on new information – listen to feedback and adjust your plan based on new information and understanding around what is and isn’t working. Don’t let reliance on conventional planning hold you back from moving forward.

Implementing S Curve insights

How should you think about the ideal distribution of the team across the S Curve?

A bell curve distribution of your team is best for both long and short term success – a balance of learning and mastery across your organization allows individuals to support one another, constantly optimize practices across the organization, and enable succession planning.

	Launch Point	Sweet Spot	Mastery
Ideal Share of Team	20% – any more strains the organization because onboarding and training require significant energy and support. It’s important to have a constant influx of new people, ideas, and skills, and to invite new perspectives into your organization to prevent corporate stagnation.	60% – it’s difficult to sustain a larger percentage at this stage, and organizations benefit from the experience of those who’ve reached Mastery, and the curiosity of new joiners. If most of your team isn’t in this phase, you lack a strong foundation of engaged and motivated individuals.	20% – a higher share leads to stagnation and increases the risk of a mass exodus. From a succession planning standpoint, you always want a pipeline of talent that will become new masters. A lack of Mastery in the organization prevents others’ progress.



Role of Employees at this stage	These individuals bring curiosity and fresh perspectives. They ask important questions and challenge existing norms, which can invigorate the organization by driving innovation.	These individuals know enough to make valuable contributions while remaining motivated to perform better, open to growth, and driven to ask questions.	These individuals serve as mentors, leaders, and domain experts who anchor the organization and guide others along their growth journeys.

High-Performing Teams

Where top performance is often required, teams who understand the aspects of growth that can amplify how they work together are better able to rise to the top and soar past their goals – when teams are currently underperforming, missing deadlines, or failing to achieve key objectives, focusing on growth as a way to amplify team performance is crucial. Even when teams are not experiencing difficulties with performance, they will always benefit from boosting their ability to accomplish significant goals. By empowering teams to integrate growth-oriented practices and behaviors, we support you in building high-performing teams.

What are the traits and attributes of a high-performing team?

High performance teams have a strong role fit:

Roles and responsibilities are optimized based on each individual’s abilities – team members are appropriately challenged and engaged. Strong teams take a flexible approach to delegating responsibilities. By aligning individual capacities with needs and providing opportunities for growth, teams unlock incremental potential.
Individuals on the team consistently demonstrate capacity to perform their roles – high-performance teams are comprised of individuals who can excel in their respective roles. Each team member possesses the necessary skills, knowledge, and experience to fulfill their responsibilities effectively.

High performance teams have a connected and growth-oriented culture:

A proactive attitude towards personal and professional development – team members continuously seek opportunities to enhance their skills and contribute more effectively to the team’s success. Team members are encouraged to take risks and be discovery driven.
A strong connection to work and colleagues – this strengthens commitment and motivation. High-performing teams feel a sense of purpose and belonging that helps them believe in both the team and its mission.

High performing teams create better outcomes:

Collective synergy empowers a sum greater than its part – high-performing teams collaborate effectively with strong communication, mutual respect, and a shared commitment to collective success. They leverage the diverse skills and perspectives of each member to achieve common objectives. Team members actively contribute their expertise and ideas, fostering innovation and creativity within the team.
Obstacles are met with resilience instead of frustration – challenges are considered opportunities for growth and learning. Instead of dwelling on mistakes, high-performing teams incorporate a culture of continuous improvement that embraces change and adapts quickly to new situations. Setbacks don’t discourage resilient teams; they motivate them and make them stronger.

How do most teams leave performance potential on the table?

Underinvesting in team dynamics – building healthy team dynamics takes time and resources, even if team members are naturally inclined to like one another. Dedicate time to build trust, develop regular communication channels, clear roles and responsibilities, processes to constructively resolve conflicts, and collaborative problem-solving approaches to help teams learn how to best work together and navigate the challenges they will inevitably face.

Mismatching individual capacity with the level of challenge – understand your team members well enough so that each role can provide enough challenge to keep an individual interested without discouraging them. If tasks are too challenging, team members can become frustrated, burnt out, or discouraged. If tasks are too easy, individuals become bored, disengaged, and unmotivated.

Failing to prioritize growth – teams often fail to capitalize on opportunities for growth and development at both the individual and collective levels. Encourage a growth mindset among team members and leaders to encourage continuous improvement and innovation for the long-term.

Overall

What are the most important things to get right?

Understanding and creating growth conditions drives retention and progress – humans are naturally oriented toward growth. Understanding what growth looks and feels like is crucial for facilitating personal and organizational development. Without a growth-oriented environment, sustained growth is difficult to achieve and people become bored or unmotivated.

Disruption is about people, not organizations – disruption is a very human and individual process. Individuals must make the choice to disrupt themselves, and organizations generally follow. Organizations don’t disrupt, people do. Leaders across an organization must deliberately pursue self-innovation and encourage others to do the same.

What are common pitfalls?

Fearing disruption instead of seeking to benefit from it – it might seem tempting to limit the challenges your employees face, but remaining in the “comfort zone” can inhibit growth in the long term and even impact retention. Both individuals and organizations must be willing to take risks and embrace new experiences to progress along the S Curve. Retention and employee motivation is dependent on organizations supporting their people as they continue developing new skills.

Lack of self-awareness and awareness of others – failing to recognize one’s strengths, weaknesses, and growth opportunities can lead to stagnation. Similarly, managers who misdiagnose where others are on the S Curve lose their ability to empower their employees’ growth. Develop self-awareness in yourself and the awareness of others to make it easier to share feedback, identify areas for improvement, identify opportunities for growth, and recognize important strengths.

Lack of support throughout the growth process – without sufficient support from leaders, peers, or mentors, individuals may struggle to navigate the challenges of growth effectively. A supportive environment that encourages experimentation, learning, and development is crucial for success. Otherwise, employees might avoid growth opportunities in the future or fail to progress, which leads to stagnation of not just the individual but of teams and the organization as a whole.

Accelerating Growth And Development For Teams and Individuals