I was talking to the founder of a $100M fintech company. He started this company four years ago. It is his second nine-figure company that he’s built. The first he sold to PayPal.

He’s brilliant and knows how to build businesses.

But with AI, things are moving so fast, he’s struggling to anticipate and prepare for the future – even a future only a few months out.

20+ years ago, in grad school, we were taught that strategic thinking was done with 10-20 year horizons. Actual plans were developed in “small” bites of 3-5 year time frames. Planning processes were expected to take months or even a year.

Those strategic planning textbooks were becoming obsolete as I read them.

Now, for most organizations, planning for 20 years from now might as well be 200 years away. 20 months from now is a stretch for some.

So much is changing, so fast.

Along with that, there is too much information to sift through and absorb.

Ironically, greater access to information hasn’t necessarily made it easier to lead. In many cases, it has made it harder. Leaders and their teams are inundated with more information, more opinions, and more possible directions than they can reasonably process.

You aren’t going to understand all of it. You certainly aren’t going to control all of it.

That makes one leadership skill critical: the ability to quickly recognize what is going on, make decisions, and act.

I don’t mean react.

I mean knowing how to keep your head and maintain a sense of direction when you can’t fully understand or control what is happening around you.

How to Manage Overwhelming Speed

“Everybody has plans until they get hit.” – Mike Tyson.

I practice Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I often develop plans or concepts for how I want a fight to go. When I’m grappling someone I can control, I can usually make my plan happen.

But if I’m fighting someone I can’t control, someone better or significantly bigger or faster, I can’t plan how the fight will go. All I can plan for is how I will fight.

But I can control myself. And that will change the outcome.

At that point, only three things matter: my attitude, my training, and acting decisively.

Obviously, everyone wants to feel in control and win. Few things are as life-affirming as submitting someone half my age. But real BJJ isn’t about that.

It’s about keeping your head while surviving a fight long enough for your opponent to make a mistake or create an opportunity for you.

You don’t have time to decide your next steps thoughtfully. You have to see an opportunity and take decisive advantage of it quickly. That largely comes from keeping a cool head, relying on muscle memory, and not hesitating.

For leaders, when it comes to navigating this rush of information and change, we often can’t control the specifics of what will happen. The economy is too big, technology is too fast, information is overwhelming.

Many Leaders Are Feeling Out of Control

Many of the leaders I talk to feel overwhelmed. They can’t control their circumstances and can’t plan their “fights.” So they forget the control they do have, of themselves and their organization.

Strategic planning still has value. You should do it. It helps create focus, buy-in, and alignment. The exercise of imagining the future you want and how you build it increases the likelihood you will build it.

But when facing a future you can’t control, the organizational equivalent of attitude, training, and decisive action is shared values, clear vision, and actionable priorities.

These support faster, better decisions and help you manage information.

Shared values: Your values define how you make decisions and behave across your organization. They allow your team to make good decisions, your kind of decisions, when the path ahead isn’t clear. Living out shared values creates a shared culture, which is one of the most important elements of organizational resilience.

Clear vision: This is the big picture of what you are trying to build. The time frame matters less than its clarity and ability to inspire your team. When everyone can see where you are going, it’s easier for them to find their way there, even if the path isn’t clear. This is especially true if your values are well defined.

Actionable priorities: These are specific, near-term milestones you and your team need to achieve to reach your vision. They help you set and maintain direction. They tell you what’s next. They help you evaluate progress.

Values are guardrails. Vision provides direction. Priorities identify your current focus.

Don’t violate your values. Be very cautious about moving away from your vision. Force anything that causes you to shift priorities to justify itself.

Applied to Decision and Action

Here is how to use these to make decisions and take action. Pick a scenario that you are trying to decide on right now. Consider one of your options:

• Does that option help us accomplish one of our current priorities? Or does it distract resources from one?
• Does this move us toward the overall vision? Or away from it?
• Is the decision itself (and how we carry it out) consistent with at least one of our values? Or does it compromise a value?

Decisions that help you achieve a priority, move you toward your vision, and express your values are probably good or good enough. Decide and act.

If a decision has a neutral impact on any of the three, be honest about whether it is a distraction or a waste of time.

If a decision violates or distracts from any of the three, stop and reconsider. It’s unlikely to be a good decision.

Application to Managing Information

The same filter works for information:

• Does this information help us accomplish a current priority, move toward our vision, or better live out our values? If so, it is probably worth paying attention to.
• If the connection is unclear, be careful. More information isn’t automatically useful.
• If the time and energy required to gather, understand, or debate it pulls your team away from what matters, stop.

You don’t need to understand everything that is changing around you.

You need to understand enough to maintain direction, make good decisions, and act.

Take good care,
Christian