Last updated 5 February 2026 ·
Brianna Wiest’s The Mountain Is You is a deeply insightful book about self-sabotage, transformation, and the power of facing internal obstacles head-on. While the book is often read in a personal context, the lessons translate perfectly to organisations - especially fast-growing scale-ups.
In businesses, just like in personal development, the most significant barriers are often internal: misalignment, unclear priorities, lack of accountability, poor communication, or outdated processes. These “mountains” quietly slow growth, frustrate teams, and reduce execution effectiveness. Understanding and overcoming them is critical for leaders who want their organisation to operate at peak performance.
In this blog, we explore how the concepts from The Mountain Is You can help scale-ups identify and overcome internal barriers, and how Reclaro can help translate this insight into practical, measurable action.
The Mountains Inside Your Organisation
Wiest describes “mountains” as internal patterns of resistance - behaviours, habits, or mindsets that hold us back. In an organisational context, these mountains often look like:
- Misalignment between teams - different departments working toward conflicting objectives.
- Unclear priorities - leadership sets goals, but teams don’t know which matter most.
- Inefficient processes - work gets stuck in bureaucracy or redundant workflows.
- Lack of accountability - nobody owns the outcomes, and responsibility is diffused.
- Fear of failure - teams avoid experimentation and innovation.
- Communication breakdowns - information silos prevent informed decision-making.
These internal barriers can slow even the most ambitious scale-ups. Growth stalls, morale declines, and the organisation struggles to translate strategy into execution.
The good news? Just as individuals can climb their personal mountains, organisations can remove internal obstacles - but only if they are acknowledged, measured, and systematically addressed.
Identify the Real Mountains
The first step in Wiest’s methodology is awareness: identifying what is holding you back. Scale-ups often fail here because the barriers are invisible, normalized, or dispersed across teams.
Leaders must ask:
- Where is our execution slowing down?
- Which objectives repeatedly miss their targets?
- What behaviours prevent teams from collaborating effectively?
- Are we reacting to problems rather than proactively solving them?
- Which processes add friction rather than value?
Reclaro helps organisations map these internal challenges by providing a clear, real-time overview of strategy execution. Leaders can see which objectives are lagging, which teams are misaligned, and where blockers exist - making invisible mountains visible.
Break Mountains Into Measurable Actions
Wiest emphasizes transformation through small, intentional steps. In organisations, this translates to operationalising solutions.
For example:
- Misalignment → Cascading OKRs: Connect company objectives to team and individual goals so everyone moves in the same direction.
- Unclear priorities → Focused dashboards: Ensure top objectives are front and centre, reducing time spent on less critical work.
- Inefficient processes → Streamlined workflows: Identify bottlenecks and implement structured routines.
- Lack of accountability → Clear ownership: Assign measurable responsibility to teams and individuals.
These steps are powerful because they transform abstract barriers into actionable solutions. The key is measurability. Without tracking progress, even good intentions fail. Reclaro enables this by turning objectives into trackable Key Results, providing a system of accountability and visibility across teams.
Culture Matters as You Climb
Wiest’s work reminds us that transformation is as much about culture as it is about systems. Organisations often “sabotage themselves” when cultural norms tolerate misalignment, unclear priorities, or avoidance of accountability.
To climb the organisational mountain successfully:
- Celebrate progress, not just outcomes: Reinforce behaviours that contribute to execution.
- Encourage learning from failure: Treat missed objectives as opportunities for insight.
- Foster collaboration: Remove silos and encourage cross-functional problem-solving.
- Maintain transparency: Everyone should know what success looks like and who owns it.
Reclaro supports these cultural shifts by making execution visible and measurable. When progress is tracked openly, alignment is strengthened, and culture naturally evolves toward high performance.
Turn Mountains Into Momentum
Wiest highlights that mountains aren’t just obstacles - they’re catalysts for growth. Organisations that confront their internal barriers often emerge stronger, faster, and more resilient.
The process:
- Identify internal barriers - understand the “mountains” your organisation faces.
- Measure and visualise - make the invisible visible using dashboards and reports.
- Assign ownership - clarify responsibility at the team and individual level.
- Act incrementally - implement small, measurable improvements consistently.
- Review and adjust - reflect regularly, learn, and iterate.
With each step, internal resistance is reduced, and organisational energy shifts from problem management to forward momentum.
The Role of Technology in Climbing Organisational Mountains
Many scale-ups face mountains not because of a lack of ambition but because execution is fragmented. Without a central system, teams rely on spreadsheets, emails, or informal updates - creating friction and uncertainty.
Reclaro addresses this challenge by:
- Aligning objectives across the organisation: Every team knows how their work contributes to the bigger picture.
- Tracking progress in real time: Leaders can spot delays or risks before they become problems.
- Automating review cycles: Ensures accountability without adding administrative burden.
- Visualising dependencies and priorities: Makes it clear which tasks are critical for progress.
- Supporting collaboration: Teams can coordinate effectively without endless meetings.
By providing a clear system of alignment and accountability, Reclaro helps organisations turn internal barriers into measurable, solvable challenges.
Lessons from Mountains: Growth Requires Courage
Just as individuals must confront fears, habits, and limiting beliefs to grow, organisations must face internal obstacles honestly. Avoiding them leads to stagnation; confronting them leads to sustainable performance improvement.
Key lessons for scale-ups:
- The biggest obstacles are often internal - and therefore addressable.
- Transformation starts with awareness, not action.
- Measurable systems amplify change.
- Culture reinforces execution; systems reinforce culture.
- Mountains can become catalysts for growth if approached systematically.
With the right mindset, the right tools, and consistent execution, your organisation can not only overcome internal barriers but thrive because of the process.
Climbing Together: Align, Act, Achieve
Scale-ups succeed when teams move in unison toward shared objectives. Internal mountains - if left unaddressed - erode momentum. But by applying lessons from The Mountain Is You and combining them with structured execution systems like Reclaro, organisations can:
- Remove friction in decision-making
- Ensure alignment across departments
- Foster accountability and ownership
- Encourage learning from mistakes
- Build a resilient, high-performance culture
The climb is challenging, but the summit - a fully aligned, high-performing organisation - is worth it.
Ready to Remove the Barriers Holding Your Organisation Back?
Every scale-up faces internal mountains. The difference between thriving and stagnating is how effectively those barriers are identified, measured, and addressed.
With Reclaro, you gain the visibility, structure, and alignment needed to turn obstacles into progress. Transform your internal challenges into a roadmap for growth, and watch your organisation climb higher than ever before.
👉 Book a demo with Reclaro today and start turning your organisational mountains into measurable success.
