The Growth Plate Diagnostic
A six-question diagnostic framework that translates biological growth mechanisms into actionable business assessment.
A six-question diagnostic framework that translates biological growth mechanisms into actionable business assessment. It reveals whether your growth is healthy (like a tree adding rings) or cancerous (like a tumor spreading unchecked). Run quarterly with your executive team.
When to Use The Growth Plate Diagnostic
Use when assessing organizational growth health, planning expansion initiatives, evaluating whether to continue or kill projects, or restructuring for scale. Particularly valuable during rapid growth phases, after failed expansions, or when coordination costs seem to be increasing faster than value creation.
How to Apply
Where Are Your Growth Plates?
Map all active growth initiatives and calculate concentration ratio. Count each initiative consuming >5% operating budget OR >10 FTEs as one growth plate. Categorize as Core (main trunk), Branch (adjacent), or Root (new territory). Calculate: (Top 3 resources) ÷ (All resources) = concentration ratio.
Questions to Ask
- Where is growth actually happening - where are resources (people, budget, attention) actually flowing?
- How many growth initiatives are consuming significant resources (>5% budget OR >10 FTEs)?
- What percentage of resources are concentrated in your top 3 growth plates?
Outputs
- List of all growth plates with resource allocation
- Concentration ratio (target: 70%+)
- Classification: healthy meristem growth vs. cancerous diffuse growth
Do You Have Stem Cells?
Calculate uncommitted capacity across people (% who could switch roles in 30 days), capital (% truly unallocated budget), and product (% of stack that's modular). Target 20-30% flexibility. Below 10% = rigid/brittle. Above 50% = unfocused.
Questions to Ask
- What percentage of your team could switch projects or roles in 30 days without major retraining?
- What percentage of budget is truly unallocated - not earmarked, genuinely free to redeploy?
- What percentage of your product/tech stack is modular enough to repurpose?
Outputs
- Stem cell ratio for people, capital, and product
- Flexibility assessment (rigid vs. balanced vs. unfocused)
- Recommendations for rotation programs or strategic reserves
What Are You Starving to Feed Growth?
For each growth plate, explicitly name what you're NOT funding to fund it. Make trade-offs visible and documented. If you can't name what's starved, you're not actually prioritizing - resources are diffusing.
Questions to Ask
- For each growth plate: what would we invest in if resources were infinite, but we're not because they flow here?
- What products are you not building, markets not entering, features postponing?
- Can everyone in the organization name what's being starved and why?
Outputs
- Explicit trade-off documentation for each growth plate
- Starvation list: what's NOT being funded
- Communication plan: ensure organization understands trade-offs
Do You Have Contact Inhibition?
Assess whether you can actually stop failing initiatives. Check for sensors (can you detect failure signals?), pathways (can bad news reach decision-makers?), and mechanisms (have you ever actually stopped something?).
Questions to Ask
- Do you track unit economics by market/segment/product in real-time?
- Can growth teams report problems without being punished? Do messengers get shot?
- Have you ever halted or reversed an expansion? What specific thresholds trigger growth halt?
Outputs
- Sensor audit: what failure signals can you detect?
- Pathway assessment: can bad news reach executives?
- Stop mechanism test: define specific thresholds (e.g., 'If CAC exceeds 3x LTV for 2 quarters, we exit')
Are You Hitting Square-Cube Limits?
Assess whether your structures match your scale. What worked at 50 people fails at 500. Communication, decision-making, and organizational structure all need redesign at each doubling of size.
Questions to Ask
- Are people saying 'I have no idea what team X is doing'? (communication breakdown)
- Is every decision involving 15 people and taking 6 weeks? (decision-making bottleneck)
- Are you insisting on flat structure at 500+ people? (structural denial)
Outputs
- Scale assessment: which structures are breaking?
- Projection: what breaks at 2x, 5x, 10x current size?
- Redesign roadmap: structures needed before next size threshold
Are You Optimizing for Growth or Reproduction?
Calculate resource split across core growth (making existing business bigger), new ventures (creating new business lines), and maintenance (keeping current business running). Choose your phase and allocate accordingly.
Questions to Ask
- What percentage goes to core growth vs. new ventures vs. maintenance?
- Are you claiming to maximize both core AND new ventures simultaneously? (biological impossibility)
- Is your allocation appropriate for your stage? (early: 80%+ core, mature: 50-60% core)
Outputs
- Resource allocation breakdown: X% core / Y% ventures / Z% maintenance
- Phase declaration: growth phase vs. reproductive phase
- Trade-off communication: what's being starved for this choice