Around your ankles
Bringing new things into the world, like products or services or processes or any kind of change, means doing entirely new things or doing old things…
That’s not to say that guessing is fine. Not in the long run.
At the beginning, when you can’t know, it’s good to put guesses into the thinking – what else do you have? – but it’s important to identify them guesses, to remind everyone they’re guesses … and to replace them with actual knowledge as soon as you can.
The alternative, that you kinda-sorta forget that you plucked them out of your head (or worse, that you keep it a secret and bluff your way through questioning), sinks you in quicksand. Guesses can take on a sticky substance, people referring to them, building them into plans and models that solidify around your ankles.
So take a guess, use it as a place holder and mark it with highlighter, for now. Then clang it to the bin, loudly, as soon as you possible can.
Skippy strategy: Highlight, then wipe away your guesses.
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Category:
Decisions
If strategy is an expensive word for a plan, then plan is a socially sellable word for a guess. Which is to say, dress it up…