I am a Rumeltian at heart, so strategy as a path resonates with me more than other approaches. I stumbled across Jeffrey Meiser’s article: Ends+Ways+Means=(Bad) Strategy from 2016 and his current follow up: Bringing a Method to the Strategy Madness, which is surprisingly applicable to the corporate environments I have worked in and with over the years.
There is a long history of researchers and thinkers pointing out that success is not due to perfect up front decisions and plans; that many priorities become clear only as we strive to move toward something rather than through planning. We find the path along the way based on what is being learned along the way, and what appears to be strategy emerges in hindsight.
It's great to point out these things, and I think your piece does a terrific job, but why have we still not changed after being told about this so often? A subtext here is how overwhelming our brain's need to quickly establish certainty around a narrative is. If we want to fix our excessive-faith-in-planning problem then what we may need to understand better and work with more is our brain's natural, automatic, fast, subconscious propensities. Paraphrasing the Dave Snowden quote: "...if ... we know these things about human beings, then we have to design on the basis of that knowledge...".
I wrote about exactly that in the intro to my card deck, and the reply I give to the kids when they ask that (minutes after we set off): “yes! The journey is the destination”
Lovely piece, JP. Wishing you recovery from poxes, inflammations and buboes of every kind.
I am a Rumeltian at heart, so strategy as a path resonates with me more than other approaches. I stumbled across Jeffrey Meiser’s article: Ends+Ways+Means=(Bad) Strategy from 2016 and his current follow up: Bringing a Method to the Strategy Madness, which is surprisingly applicable to the corporate environments I have worked in and with over the years.
There is a long history of researchers and thinkers pointing out that success is not due to perfect up front decisions and plans; that many priorities become clear only as we strive to move toward something rather than through planning. We find the path along the way based on what is being learned along the way, and what appears to be strategy emerges in hindsight.
It's great to point out these things, and I think your piece does a terrific job, but why have we still not changed after being told about this so often? A subtext here is how overwhelming our brain's need to quickly establish certainty around a narrative is. If we want to fix our excessive-faith-in-planning problem then what we may need to understand better and work with more is our brain's natural, automatic, fast, subconscious propensities. Paraphrasing the Dave Snowden quote: "...if ... we know these things about human beings, then we have to design on the basis of that knowledge...".
Working on it. Book on the way.
A great piece, JP!
My best wishes for the well being of you and your precious daughter. Hope you feel better very soon!
That sense of “Are we there yet?” YES!
I wrote about exactly that in the intro to my card deck, and the reply I give to the kids when they ask that (minutes after we set off): “yes! The journey is the destination”
Lovely piece, JP. Wishing you recovery from poxes, inflammations and buboes of every kind.