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Its Purpose
Its
Purpose Overview
Where
Planning Works
Where Instant Insight Is Needed
Why Strategic Cognition Works
Competition and Production
The
Information Problem
Where Instant Insight is Needed
 In
dynamic,
external environments, planning doesn't work because there is, at once, too much
and too little information. While there is a flood of detailed data, specific
information about the future is limited
(more about that here).
Chaos arises because people are
competing, the critical resources are
contested, and the key decisions are outside of the control of existing agreements. In these external competitive
environments, don't have the time or information to plan your way through your
decisions. You need the instant strategic insight of rapid competitive cognition
to see what is important in your situation.
The larger environment is outside our direct control. Our information about what is happening and possible in the
competitive environment is limited. Known resources are always both limited and
contested.
The most important resource, the potential locked within each of us,
is the most mysterious of all.
Different people have different ideas about which
choices are best.
Since we cannot agree, competition over resources is not only
unavoidable but necessary. Only competition can resolve the question about
who uses what resources the most productively. This competition unleashes our
human creativity, which opens up entirely new possibilities.
Success in this competitive process does not come
from planning. In these chaotic
environments, a series of predetermined steps leading to a predictable result is
impossible. Competitive plans collide, producing results that no one can plan. As the saying goes, our plans do not survive first contact with
the enemy.
Developing strategic insight starts with the humble acceptance
that competitive
environments are outside our control. Any competitive arena—the marketplace, the job market,
or a sports arena—is defined by complex, unpredictable dynamics.
Competitive environments are both much larger and much more complex
than we can consciously understand. Many players are unknown. Individuals and groups behave in
unpredictable ways. Competitors actively mislead
each other about their plans. People often act on an impulse, reacting to
fast-changing conditions. The competitive environment is a puzzle that
reshapes itself continuously.
The environment has too much information.
You don't have time to collect it all. If you did, it is too complicated
and fast-changing to coordinate in a systematic manner. Success depends upon
selecting the appropriate moves for the specific
situation in a limited of of time. It also demands creativity, finding
new moves that are made possible by the unique nature of the situation.
In other words, success demands insight, what
some might call and intuitive understanding of competitive situations.
Insight that identifies the few critical elements in complex situations.
Flashes of insight where the inspiration strikes you, finding a solution
to the problem. This
cannot plan on insight,
but where does it come from? Read on...
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