Start the Flywheel: The Make It Human Approach to Sustainable Growth

The data-backed approach to turning culture into competitive advantage

A few years ago, I worked with a fast-scaling company that looked great on paper.

Clear strategy. Big funding. Aggressive growth targets.

But behind the scenes, something was off.

People were burnt out. Innovation was stalling. Trust was low.

The CEO said:

It was a familiar story.

They didn’t have a strategy problem.

They had a culture problem.

When culture is an afterthought, growth gets harder

We’ve seen this again and again. Businesses trying to grow hit invisible friction:

• Key people start leaving 

• Innovation dries up

• Collaboration becomes clunky

• Execution slows down

• Burnout creeps in

And it’s easy to assume the answer is a new plan, new hire, or new tool.

But often, the real issue is that the environment people are working in isn’t supporting the growth they’re being asked to deliver.

Because no strategy can scale if your people are stuck, stressed, or disengaged.

The MIH Flywheel: How we turn culture into momentum

At Make It Human, we help organisations design the right conditions for people — and performance — to thrive.

Our approach is built around the growth flywheel:

1. When culture is purposefully designed to fuel and sustain human growth.

2. It nurtures happy, healthy, thriving people who work harder and stay longer.

3. And this creates the energy in a resilient, agile, high performing and durable business.

When the flywheel is in motion, you can feel it:

✨ Ideas fly faster

🧩 Collaboration clicks

🧠 People take ownership

🔄 Energy replenishes

🚀 Strategy feels easy — because people are aligned, motivated, and supported

Culture that’s grounded in science (not guesswork)

The MIH approach is based on robust evidence from behavioural science, psychology, and global research on performance and wellbeing.

Here’s just some of the evidence proving this works:

• People who feel trusted are 2.6x more likely to stay (Great Place to Work, 2022)

• Skill development drives 76% higher engagement (LinkedIn, 2023)

• Good work-life balance reduces burnout by 23% (Great Place to Work, 2022)

• Inclusive leadership results in 6x more innovation (Deloitte, 2020)

• Purposeful work leads to 5x greater wellbeing (McKinsey, 2021)

• Psychologically safe teams collaborate 58% more (MIT, 2022)

Happy, healthy, growing people leads to:

• 57% more discretionary effort (Harvard Business Review, 2020)

• Purpose-led cultures see 27% higher EBITDA margins (Bain & Co, 2021)

• Higher wellbeing predicts stronger financial and stock performance (de Neve et al, Harvard Medical School, 2024)

These aren’t fluffy metrics — they’re leading indicators of high performance.

The MIH Recipe: Four ingredients to sustain growth

We use a simple, practical structure to help organisations build culture that lasts:

🧭 Models

Evidence-based frameworks to make culture visible, measurable, and actionable — not abstract.

🛠 Skills

The everyday behaviours that build trust, inclusion, psychological safety, and accountability.

🔁 Habits

Small, consistent routines that shape the way people interact and work together over time.

📊 Tools

Smart ways to measure and maintain momentum — helping culture stay live, not static.

Learn more about these 4 ingredients here.

This isn’t about surface-level engagement.

It’s about building a human operating system that enables growth.

The cost of not starting with human growth

When you neglect culture it shows up in all the places you don’t want it:

• Rising attrition

• Declining innovation

• Burnt-out teams

• Slow execution

• A constant feeling of drag

And often, the fixes feel like firefighting — reactive, rushed, and expensive.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Build culture that powers strategy

If you’re a leader trying to scale, here’s the truth:

Culture isn’t a side project — it’s your most scalable asset.

When you start with the flywheel — using the MIH approach — you create the conditions where people want to stay, grow, and do their best work.

That’s how sustainable growth really happens.

Not through pressure. Through trust.

Not through hustle alone. Through clarity, purpose, and energy.

Because when people thrive, performance follows.

And when performance compounds, you don’t just grow — you grow stronger.

Learn more in this short explainer video:

Want to learn how to start the growth flywheel in your team or organisation?

Get in touch today!