Have a Mindset of Maybe

There is no try. But between do or do not, consider maybe.

“Strategy” is so widely misunderstood that Harvard Business Review dedicated an entire book of essays to the topic.

There’s a simple interpretation of strategy that I sometimes favor:

Strategy is guessing.

Granted, much of the time it’s informed guessing, culled from lived experience and domain expertise and precedents and fancy research reports, but make no mistake that strategy is guessing and that’s ok.

What’s generally less ok is the risk that un(der)examined guessing exposes us to.

But risk is, by its very nature, inescapable.

So to protect our investments (read: choices), we must seek ways to address risk in our strategy, and the fastest way to get skilled at this is by embracing what I call “a mindset of maybe.”

Your ideas suck. Maybe.

Most of us, most of the time believe our ideas are good, seeking mirror mirror validation over actual investigation.

As a product coach I get a lot of ideas shared with me. Just the other day

“Wouldn’t bla bla idea be good?”

Yes. Maybe.

“Our customers are xyz who bla bla.”

Are they? Maybe.

Just as awareness is the space between stimulus and response, maybe is the pause between do or do not.

Bottom Line

By having a mindset of maybe (meaning maybe our ideas are right, but maybe we’re missing something and maybe we should go see before we go all the way) encourages healthy inquiry when possibilities are most limitless and the cost of change is lowest.