Imagine the team needs to make it through a scary jungle.
- Imagine the team needs to make it through a scary jungle.
- The team might be jittery or nervous about the dangerous trek.
- One approach is to make a detailed map that lays out a path through the jungle.
- But a plan is a liability; it could turn out to be wrong.
- In a dark jungle, there will definitely be unknowns.
- If anyone on the team finds any detail that's clearly wrong, it makes them distrust the whole map.
- "We're going into the jungle with a map that is clearly wrong! We'll die!"
- Instead the better move is to lean into a clarifying and inspiring high-level vision.
- "Yes, getting through the jungle will be hard, but we are wily and adaptable, and on the other side are mountains of gold. We can do this!"
- It's easier to align on abstract things, and abstract things are more resilient to a complex/surprising environment, less likely to be revealed to be wrong.