Somehow they just know. Every year, I grow tomatoes. And somehow the plants know early in the season what the size of the harvest will be. Temperature, light exposure, precipitation. Nature signals the plant telling it what will come. The bigger the harvest, the bigger the stem to support what will come. The plant grows the infrastructure it needs to support what it will produce. And it is usually spot on.

Business isn’t always as intuitive as nature. Leaders don’t always know how fast to build out the infrastructure of an organization such that it is in place as the business grows and fills in. Sometimes the signals are there, other times they aren’t. The trick is to watch for them and build out the infrastructure to support growth.

The battle raged for weeks. The people riding bikes liked long, straight, downhill trails. But those steep, straight trails lead to erosion when it gets rainy. So, the trail keepers created switchbacks years ago, planting over the trail they eliminated. This year, the bikes rode through those plantings and started re-establishing trails. The trail keepers moved logs to block the trails, which were promptly moved by the bikers. After several back and forths, the logs were tossed down the hill. Then piles of thick branches appeared and have been there for a few weeks, signaling the end of the battle.

The battle over the trail design was a classic battle of interest. Bikers wanted straight paths to ride down quickly. Trail keepers want to keep the trails from eroding. These sorts of battles happen all the time in business. People have different interests, and often times come from a place of good intentions. The trick is understanding what is driving the interest and finding common ground.

The crackle of movement through the woods caught our attention. Moments later, a deer came leaping down the hill, across the trail and disappeared into the trees and brush on the other side. It didn’t stopped, it just proceeded full speed ahead. Behind it was another deer that stopped in the brush to observe the two people and dog looking at it from the trail. We stared at each other for a few moments until the deer decided it could proceed leaping down the hill, across the trail and disappear on the other side. Two deer, two approaches.

There are all sorts of business models that are more or less effective depending upon the environment. Like the deer, full speed ahead without worrying about risk can be highly effective. Other times, observing risk before proceeding makes sense. And sometimes either one will work. Figuring out which makes sense and when is important to long term survival.

There’s an ornamental bush in a planter box in front of my house. I’ve wanted it to grow to a certain height, but it just hasn’t grown. And that has stumped me. Then a few weeks ago, I realized, my landscaping crew has been trimming the bush. They thought they were helping, but really they were impeding the growth I was looking for.

In business, well intentioned people get in the way of growth all the time. They think their job is to constrain it from happening.  That’s when it is important for leaders to make sure people understand growth goals and align the organization to support rather than impede it.