Whitney Johnson - Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company

This book is tremendous. I couldnt stop reading. An elegantly simple framework and a seriously smart book.

STEPHEN M. R. COVEY, bestselling author, The Speed of Trust

Whitney Johnson has few equals when it comes to the topic of personal growth. And now shes written a true masterpiece. Her model is instructive and straightforward, but thats the least of it. I love, love, love the case studies. The people shes visited with and the stories theyve given her deserve the word peerless. Yes, its a serious study, but its also a true, genuine page-turner.

TOM PETERS, bestselling coauthor, In Search of Excellence

Johnson offers a clear philosophical framework and actionable advice on how to love our lives and do our best work, along with wonderful stories that show us what she means. I loved this book!

KIM SCOTT, New York Times bestselling author, Radical Candor and Just Work

This is a groundbreaking book in a class by itself. It hooked me with the first sentence, and it kept getting more intriguing from there. You and I are designed to grow, to keep bringing more of ourselves to the surface. Johnson takes the reader on a journey that begins with a deep longing to grow and ends having taken us beyond our limiting beliefs to a state of inner freedom and perpetual new beginnings. Smart Growth is required reading for anyone interested in growing a company in the most satisfying ways.

BOB PROCTOR, bestselling author, You Were Born Rich

Smart Growth is a brilliant and beautifully written book. The stories are so compelling that you can almost miss their solid foundation of good science and business acumen. Johnson is a collector of wisdom, and she generously shares what shes collected. She guides us to where we want to go even if we were afraid to go there. Smart Growth is good for you, your team, and your business. I loved it, and you will too.

CAROL KAUFFMAN, founder, Institute of Coaching, Harvard Medical School; Senior Leadership Advisor, Egon Zehnder

Whitney Johnson brilliantly demystifies the process of growth by showing us not only how to start something new but also how to keep going, even when its tough. Exceptional stories make Smart Growth a delight to read. Actionable insights make it essential for business leaders who want to grow their companies.

VALA AFSHAR, Chief Digital Evangelist, Salesforce

If I were a CEO, Id want every one of my leaders to read this human, engaging, and realistic book about building high-performance, high-growth teams.

RITA MCGRATH, Professor, Columbia Business School; Fellow, Strategic Management Society; and bestselling author, Seeing Around Corners

There are so many memorable concepts and inspiring stories in Smart Growth , I cant pick a favorite. By the end youll be ready to learn and grow both yourself and your organization in ways you may not yet have imagined. This book is a powerful reminder that the fundamental unit of growth and change in our ecosystem is each one of us.

MELISSA WERNECK, Global Chief People Officer, Kraft Heinz

I always learn from Whitney Johnson. Smart Growth examines the often-overlooked intersection between the growth of individuals and the growth of organizations. It offers valuable insights, whether youre looking to take on new challenges or successfully lead a diverse team.

JUSTIN OSOFSKY, Chief Operating Officer, Instagram

Growth and change can often feel frustrating and slow, both for ourselves and our businesses. Whitney Johnsons expert advice in Smart Growth changes this! Full of powerful stories, research, and thoughtful insights, this book will arm you with all you need to grow successfully. A must-read!

MARSHALL GOLDSMITH, bestselling author, Triggers , Mojo , and What Got You Here Wont Get You There

It seems like everything is smart these daysphones, watches, TVs, refrigerators. Learning and growth are now smart too, with Whitney Johnsons latest book. Smart Growth will transform your view of learningfor me it has already opened up an exciting new way to think about growth and development. In fact, this book may be the smartest product of all!

JAMES M. CITRIN, Leader, Spencer Stuart North American CEO Practice; coauthor, Leading at a Distance

Johnson has written a profound book full of sound advice and great stories to help you master learning and growth. Most authors would stop there, but she masterfully takes her blueprint further, showing you how to help others master their learning and growth, too. Simply genius. Brava!

NANCY DUARTE, CEO, Duarte, Inc.; bestselling author, slide:ology and Resonate

SMART GROWTH

How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company

WHITNEY JOHNSON

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW PRESS

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

HBR Press Quantity Sales Discounts

Harvard Business Review Press titles are available at significant quantity discounts when purchased in bulk for client gifts, sales promotions, and premiums. Special editions, including books with corporate logos, customized covers, and letters from the company or CEO printed in the front matter, as well as excerpts of existing books, can also be created in large quantities for special needs.

For details and discount information for both print and
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tel. 800-988-0886, or www.hbr.org/bulksales.

Copyright 2022 Whitney Johnson

All rights reserved

Disrupt Yourself, Personal Disruption Framework, S Curve, S Curve of Learning, S Curve of Learning Framework, Smart Growth Leader, (Launch Point, Sweet Spot and Mastery) and (Explorer, Collector, Accelerator, Metamorph, Anchor, Mountaineer), S Curve Insight Platform, and Disruption Advisors are trademarks of WLJ Advisors, LLC dba Disruption Advisors LLC, all rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. Requests for permission should be directed to permissions@harvardbusiness.org, or mailed to Permissions, Harvard Business School Publishing, 60 Harvard Way, Boston, Massachusetts 02163.

The web addresses referenced in this book were live and correct at the time of the books publication but may be subject to change.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is forthcoming.

ISBN: 978-1-64782-115-9

eISBN: 978-1-64782-116-6

To Clayton Christensenfor making this S Curve possible.

[We] each live thousands of lives, for each day we become someone slightly different. [We] dont change in one giant leap, but across a million little steps. The most important step a person can take is always the next one.

BRANDON SANDERSON

Growth is our default setting.

Astrid Tuminez was born into circumstances that looked like a dead end. The sixth of seven children, her family moved when she was two from a remote farming village in the Philippines to the violent slums of the provincial capital, Iloilo City. Her father made $50 per month. When Tuminez was five, her mother left, leaving her fifteen-year-old sister Marley in charge. They lived in a bamboo-floored hut on stilts over the sea. There was no running water, sanitation, or electricity. Marley washed their clothes by hand. They cooked their mealsprimarily riceon a dirt stove with wood. When I interviewed Tuminez for the