When Scale Changes Everything, #9

Why talk about scale in a series on leadership and polyintelligence? Because scale is where small decisions stop being small. It’s where a clever idea, a promising experiment, or a niche technology suddenly impacts millions of lives. Scale is the moment the grid becomes a launchpad, not just a net.

Think about Zoom. Before 2020, it was one of many video-conferencing tools, used by tech teams and remote workers but hardly a household name. Then the pandemic hit. Within weeks, kindergarten classes, corporate board meetings, weddings, therapy sessions, and even funerals moved online. Zoom went from 10 million daily users in December 2019 to over 300 million by April 2020. That’s scale—when context and need snap into alignment and an “app” suddenly becomes social infrastructure.

Zoom didn’t succeed just because the software worked. It scaled because internet bandwidth, cloud capacity, user readiness, and cultural desperation for connection all aligned. The world was primed. Overnight, Zoom wasn’t just a product—it was a platform, rewiring education, healthcare, and workplace culture in real time.

Here’s the leadership lesson: if scale can happen this fast, leaders can’t just prepare for success; they must prepare for consequences. Scaling doesn’t only multiply opportunity—it multiplies responsibility.