Part I
https://begenerative.com/the-sigmoid-curve-in-practice-a-visual-narrative-for-leadership-teams
By Alan Froggatt
The art of leadership is timing.
The Sigmoid Curve is not just a model of growth and decline—it’s a mirror for leadership consciousness. Knowing where you are on the curve determines how you act, what you prioritise, and whether your organisation renews or declines.
Step 1: Locate Your Curve
Begin with a boardroom exercise.
Draw the curve on a whiteboard. Label its phases: Inception, Growth, Peak, Decline. Ask each executive to place a marker where they believe the business, team, or product currently sits.
The conversation that follows is the point. Divergent perspectives reveal systemic blind spots. The finance director may see late growth; the operations lead may already feel decline. The CEO may be celebrating a peak. Reality emerges through dialogue.
Step 2: Identify the Signals
Next, explore what evidence supports those perceptions.
- What data shows continued growth?
- What indicators suggest diminishing returns?
- Where is energy rising—and where is it leaking?
Systems theory tells us that every pattern leaves traces. Decline often begins invisibly: slowed decision-making, loss of creativity, cultural fatigue. These are early symptoms that the system’s reinforcing loops have become self-limiting.
Step 3: Begin the Second Curve
The leader’s task is to begin the next curve while the current one still ascends.
Ask:
- What new curve must we invest in now?
- What must we let go of to free that energy?
- Who needs to grow to host the next level of value?
This is where Integral thinking adds depth. The second curve is not only a strategic reinvention; it’s a developmental one. The organisation must evolve its worldview, not just its business model. Each new curve represents a higher-order coherence—greater complexity held with greater simplicity.
Step 4: Name the Transition
Use language carefully. Handy’s insight was not only structural—it was psychological. The end of one curve feels like loss. Without a shared narrative, people cling to the old identity.
Name the transition. Create rituals that honour the first curve’s success while authorising the emergence of the next.
In Integral terms, this is the transcend and include moment—where the old self is integrated, not discarded. It allows collective learning to flow forward without fragmentation.
Step 5: Build the Practice
A practical rhythm helps embed the Sigmoid Curve as a living management tool:
- Quarterly Curve Reviews – Where are we on each curve?
- Annual Renewal Sessions – What second curves must begin this year?
- Leadership Reflection Cycles – How must we grow to hold the next level of complexity?
These rituals create systemic renewal, turning Handy’s curve from an abstract model into a living organisational pulse.
Step 6: The Meta View
Finally, see the curves not as discrete arcs but as a field of emergence.
From a MetaIntegral perspective, every new curve expands the organisation’s capacity to align value, purpose, and consciousness. It is a process of becoming—of generating coherence at higher scales.
Leaders who practise this work are not merely managing performance; they are architecting renewal.
The Sigmoid Curve is a visual truth:
Everything rises, peaks, and falls.
But within that rhythm lies freedom—
The freedom to begin again,
To design the next curve before the last one ends.