A Conversation With Me and Andrew Pickering

A conversation with Andrew Pickering produced thinking worth sharing.

We were discussing the tension between strategy and action – whether you need a fully formed strategy before you start, or whether strategy emerges from action.

My view: strategy emerges from action. You can’t think your way to a good strategy in isolation. You have to do things, observe what happens, and adjust.

Andrew pushed back helpfully: complete absence of strategy leads to wasted effort – lots of doing with no sense of direction.

We landed here: you need a directional hypothesis before you start – a clear sense of what you’re trying to achieve and a rough idea of how. But hold it loosely. Be willing to revise it as you learn.

The error on one side is paralysis by planning. The error on the other is activity without direction.

The sweet spot: start with a direction, then let action inform the strategy.