Complexity theory tells us that planning is arguably less important than understanding that plans fail all the time, to work with that knowledge, and manage the potential for change (a plan in and of itself) because life doesn’t work to pre-conceived ideals.

The leader who claims to embody “the truth” becomes attractive not only ideologically but structurally. Certainty simplifies, lowers the cognitive costs of decision, and offers security in the face of fragility. Authoritarianism is not only a political pathology; it is an epistemic adaptation to vulnerability.

In a universal, computable world, freedom could be optional — efficiency might suffice. But in the complex, entangled world we actually inhabit, freedom is structural. It is the infrastructural condition for markets to operate as distributed intelligence, rather than engines of extraction and self-termination.

Plans ultimately form the core of business organizations; they corral and structure, channel thought and action into a controllable field. But it's important to understand that plans do and will fail. The future is unknown and things change; it is imperative to understand and plan for it.

Leadership wasn’t just an act inside a system. It was a way of tuning the system itself. Through presence. Through phrasing. Through timing.

Instead, allow multiple visions to coexist and use them all together to prioritise action today that will make them all likelier and/or clearer.

We live in complexity: systems that are entangled, adaptive, and emergent. Impacts are non-linear. Consequences are unpredictable. Pathways cannot be precomputed. Futures unfold through feedback and interaction, not through equilibrium.

Strategy is the management of constraints to enable coherent action in a desired direction - amidst a plethora of inescapable tensions such as short vs. long, exploitation vs. exploration, control vs. autonomy, and so forth.

Theo Dawson. The idea was simple and brutal: the gap is the distance between the complexity of the challenges you're facing and the developmental capacity you currently possess.