When growth plans hit resistance: what to fix first

The beginning of a new year is usually full of plans, optimism, and momentum.

Every year, leaders and brands set out with clear intentions to evolve — to grow, to expand their impact, to do things differently this time.

And every year, many of them quietly slide back into old patterns.

Not because the strategy was bad.
Not because the motivation wasn’t there.
And not because the team wasn’t capable.

More often than not, growth stalls because the systems weren’t built to support the strategy.

I ran into a version of this myself coming back from the holidays.

I sat down ready to execute on a growth plan I’d already mapped out for 2026 — and quickly noticed resistance where there shouldn’t have been any. Execution felt heavier than expected. Simple actions took more effort than they should.

That was the signal.

After stepping back, I identified the issue: systems friction.

I’d updated some of the obvious systems in my business — but not all the ones required to support the way I intended to grow next. Once I addressed those gaps, execution smoothed out and momentum returned.

That pattern shows up inside brands all the time.

You decide to engage Gen Z — but your systems still rely on one-way messaging, rigid approval cycles, and overly polished, brand-first content that leaves no room for authenticity or participation.

You want leaders on your team to build reach on LinkedIn — but there’s no guidance on how to write for social, no shared point of view, and no clarity on what effective visibility actually looks like.

You expand into new markets — but your internal processes assume language is the only thing that needs to change, treating translation as a solution instead of adapting for different cultural norms, expectations, and buying behaviors.

You launch a new product or line extension — but your systems still reflect how existing customers prefer to discover, evaluate, and engage — rather than being informed by the identity-based factors that actually influence new customer decisions.

In each case, the intent is right — but the systems were never designed to support how customers actually behave.

Friction is the enemy of growth.

When customers experience friction anywhere in the journey, they hesitate — or they leave.
When teams experience friction internally while trying to execute a growth plan, progress slows and confidence erodes.

Here’s where many leaders get tripped up:

They don’t always identify the right source of friction.

Sometimes the issue is the strategy.
Sometimes the strategy is sound — and the systems are what’s holding it back.

But when systems friction gets misdiagnosed as a strategy problem, leaders often abandon opportunities prematurely — changing direction when what they really needed was better support for execution.

That distinction matters.

Strategy friction requires rethinking the strategy.
Systems friction requires fixing the systems that enable it.

If growth feels harder than it should right now, the most important question isn’t simply “Is our strategy wrong?”

It’s: What’s creating friction — and where is it coming from?

That question is exactly why I created this quick diagnostic.

If you want clarity on what’s actually limiting your growth — and where to focus next — you can take the quiz here:

Identify what’s slowing your growth [2-minute assessment]

It helps you pinpoint whether you’re dealing with strategy friction, systems friction, or something else entirely — so you can move forward with confidence instead of guesswork.

Word on the Street

More soon,
Sonia