When Growth Exposes Process Debt
Has work started to feel heavier, even though the team hasn't changed and the technology still works?
Projects take longer to move forward. Approvals involve more people than before. Tasks that once felt simple now require extra steps, clarification and reassurance.
Nothing is technically broken, but momentum feels harder to maintain. This is often the point where growth begins to expose process debt.
As organisations scale, processes that once worked naturally can struggle to keep pace. What was once informal and efficient becomes stretched, inconsistent, or overly reliant on individuals. Over time, that friction compounds, affecting delivery confidence and decision-making.
The encouraging part is this: these pressures are usually visible long before they become critical. When recognised early, they create an opportunity to strengthen how teams work, not a crisis to manage.
What is process debt?
Explained simply, process debt is what builds up when ways of working are never deliberately updated as a business grows. Early on, teams rely on shortcuts, informal habits and "we've always done it this way" approaches that feel efficient at the time. As the organisation scales, those same habits start to slow things down, create confusion and generate extra work. Nothing is visibly broken, but everyday delivery feels heavier and less certain.
More technically, process debt is similar to technical debt, but it sits in workflows, governance and operating models rather than in code. It emerges when processes, decision frameworks and delivery patterns are not refactored alongside organisational growth, increased complexity or new digital systems.
Over time, outdated approvals, unclear ownership, fragmented tooling and inconsistent ways of working accumulate, creating coordination overhead and friction across teams. This misalignment between people, process and technology can erode productivity, reduce delivery confidence and limit the impact of digital transformation, automation and platform modernisation initiatives.
The good news is that process debt is rarely invisible. It shows up through everyday frustrations long before anything truly breaks.
Why process pressure appears after people signals
In the first part of this series, we explored how growth tends to show up in people first. Roles blur, ownership becomes less clear, and decisions slow down. Process is often the next place pressure appears.
As platforms and organisations grow, the volume and complexity of work increase. Without deliberate adjustments, the ways of working that once felt agile and intuitive begin to show strain, and informal habits can no longer support more formal demands.
It's rarely about people doing the wrong thing. More often, it's about processes that haven't evolved to match the scale of the organisation.
In practice, this is a common stage of healthy growth rather than a sign that something has gone badly wrong.
The subtle signs of process strain
Process challenges don't usually arrive as major breakdowns. They appear gradually, often disguised as everyday frustrations.
Common signals include:
- Decisions being revisited multiple times
- Work needing repeated clarification
- Increased reliance on meetings to maintain alignment
- Inconsistent approaches across teams
- Delivery timelines becoming harder to predict
Individually, these can seem manageable. Together, they create drag that affects confidence, clarity, and momentum.
Over time, teams begin to compensate for process gaps rather than addressing them directly. Workarounds become normalised, and systems that once felt efficient can become surprisingly fragile.
Studies from Harvard Business Review show that managers now spend over half their working hours in meetings and coordination activities, a signal that process complexity often grows faster than clarity.
If you recognise two or three of these in your own organisation, it's often a sign that growth has started to outpace your ways of working rather than your capability.
Complexity doesn't scale in straight lines
One of the challenges with growth is that complexity rarely increases evenly. A small change in demand can create a disproportionate impact on how work flows.
Processes that supported a smaller team or platform may struggle when more stakeholders, integrations, and expectations are introduced. Without clear checkpoints or shared understanding, teams spend more time coordinating work than progressing it.
This often leads to cautious decision-making, not because teams lack confidence, but because the consequences of missteps feel greater under scale.
Research from McKinsey shows that organisational complexity can reduce productivity by as much as 20–30%, often due to unclear decision-making structures and inefficient processes. As businesses scale, the cost of coordination tends to grow faster than expected.
The upside is that relatively small improvements to clarity and decision-making can unlock disproportionate gains in momentum.
Process issues are rarely isolated
Just like people challenges, process strain rarely exists on its own.
Unclear ownership can slow decisions, outdated approval structures can create bottlenecks, and informal communication channels can lead to inconsistent outcomes.
As organisations grow, the links between people, process, and technology become tighter. When one area lags behind, pressure spreads quickly. Often, what appears to be a delivery issue is actually a signal that workflows, responsibilities, or governance structures need attention.
Seen this way, process pressure becomes useful feedback rather than a problem to fear.
Where process fits in the bigger picture
Strong processes are not about adding bureaucracy. They're about creating clarity, reducing friction, and enabling teams to move with confidence.
In many cases, small adjustments can have a meaningful impact. Clearer decision pathways, shared expectations around delivery, and better documentation of workflows often restore momentum more effectively than large-scale changes.
For example, agreeing who owns key decisions, or standardising how work moves between teams, can often unlock progress surprisingly quickly.
The challenge is not to design perfect processes, but to ensure that the ones you have still serve the organisation as it grows.
Looking ahead
In the final part of this series, we'll explore how growth begins to affect technology itself, and why stable platforms can start to feel fragile when the structures around them haven't kept pace.
Together, people, process, and technology form a connected system. Reviewing them collectively is often the most effective way to unlock smoother, more confident, and more sustainable growth.
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