Introduction: 

Henry Cloud sets out the argument that in your business, the tomorrow that you desire and envision may never come to pass if you do not end some things you are doing today. He states that there are different kinds of endings, and learning how to tell one from the other will ensure success and prevent failures, ending the pain and turmoil that your business may now be encountering.

There are reasons why you may not see the endings that are right in front of you, and reasons why you have been unable to execute the ones that you do see but feel paralysed to deal with. However, following Cloud’s advice, there is hope for us all if we invoke necessary endings.

Endings: The Good Cannot Begin Until the Bad Ends

In business, endings are necessities for a turnaround or growth. Businesses must let go of product lines or areas of business whose day has passed. To sustain their companies’ current levels of health, business leaders must shut down yesteryear’s good ideas or strategies to have the focus to take their organisations to tomorrow. Sometimes, it means letting go of employees as well.

However, it's hard to make these decisions. Here’s why we avoid endings:

• Fear of the unknown
• Fear of confrontation
• Fear of letting go and sadness associated with endings
• Experiencing too many painful endings, making avoidance the preferred option
• Inability to process endings when forced upon us, leading to stagnation
• Repetition of mistakes due to failure to learn from past endings

The real reason we avoid endings is often personal: we are not prepared to go where we need to go, we do not clearly see the need to end something, or we maintain false hope. When we fail to end things well, we are destined to repeat the mistakes that keep us from moving forward.

Pruning: Growth Depends on Getting Rid of the Unwanted or the Superfluous

Definition: Pruning is the act of cutting away unwanted or superfluous parts to promote growth.

Areas in your business that require resources—time, energy, talent, money—but are not achieving the vision you have for them should be pruned. This applies when:

• An initiative siphons resources from more promising ventures
• An endeavour is sick and unlikely to recover
• Something is already dead and serving no purpose

Jack Welch’s business principles illustrate the importance of pruning:

• Fix, close, or sell: Businesses must embrace negative realities and make hard decisions.
• Fire the bottom 10 percent: Even employees must be assessed and pruned to maintain excellence.

Pruning with Purpose Pruning is not simply cutting costs or reducing headcount. Instead, it’s about defining what your business should look like and removing anything—good, bad, or dead—that prevents its realisation.

Make Endings Normal

To align yourself with necessary endings, it is essential to make them a normal part of business rather than seeing them as problems.

Accept Life Cycles and Seasons

• Businesses evolve through different stages: launch, growth, normalisation, and maturity. Without pruning, decline is inevitable.

Accept That Life Produces Too Much Life

• High-functioning people and companies accumulate too many relationships and activities. The most successful among them prune regularly.

Accept That Incurable Sickness and Evil Exist

• Some employees, business strategies, or products are too sick to recover. Holding onto them only wastes resources. Don’t beat a dead horse—move forward.

Getting to the Pruning Moment

Facing reality is key to executing necessary endings. Avoiding reality leads to stagnation and unnecessary struggle. Fully embracing the truth of a situation provides the courage to act decisively.

The Big Change Motivator: Get Hopeless

Hope is a powerful force, but false hope can be destructive. If a situation is truly beyond saving, it is imperative to give up false hope and accept reality.

Factors to Determine Whether Change Is Possible:

1. Involvement in a Proven Change Process – Is real effort being made?
2. Additional Structure – Are there new frameworks to support change?
3. Monitoring Systems – How is progress measured?
4. New Experiences and Skills – Is genuine growth occurring?
5. Self-sustaining Motivation – Is internal drive present, or is it externally forced?
6. Admission of Need – Has the issue been fully acknowledged?
7. Presence of Support – Is there external encouragement for change?

 Resistance: How to Tackle Internal and External Barriers

Many times, people remain stuck due to conflicting desires:

• Wanting growth but fearing the necessary confrontation
• Valuing an old product line but needing higher margins
• Wanting a high performer but valuing an employee’s people skills

To progress, you must choose what to give up to achieve greater goals.

The Magic of Self-Selection

Rather than rejecting people outright, set a standard and allow them to self-select based on their willingness to meet it. By setting expectations, people either rise to the challenge or naturally eliminate themselves from the equation.

Taking Inventory of What Is Depleting Your Resources

Sustainability is key. Running out of resources—time, energy, money—will lead to inevitable collapse. Common business pitfalls include:

• Overworked employees leading to burnout
• Toxic team members demotivating the workplace
• Financial mismanagement and growing debt

Recognising these drains early and addressing them through pruning ensures longevity and success.

Conclusion

Cloud suggests we become business gardeners, pruning the deadwood from our businesses, eliminating inertia, and optimising resource allocation. Pruning provides space for new growth and fresh life within an organisation.

Get snipping!