Back to Ideas
Every expedition starts with a plan. Routes mapped, contingencies outlined, timelines agreed. And every experienced mountaineer knows the plan will change — probably within the first few hours.
This isn’t a failure of planning. It’s the nature of complex environments. The mountain doesn’t care about your spreadsheet.
Strategy works the same way. The value of a strategic plan isn’t in its permanence — it’s in the thinking it forces. The conversations it provokes. The assumptions it surfaces.
The best leaders I’ve worked with hold their plans lightly. They commit to the direction, not the details. They make decisions with incomplete information and adjust as they climb.
Rigidity on a mountain gets people killed. Rigidity in an organisation does something slower but equally destructive — it kills adaptability, creativity, and trust.
So plan thoroughly, then let go. The mountain will teach you the rest.