Perspective 002
It Depends
Some hear uncertainty.
I hear the beginning of understanding.
“It depends.”
People often ask for my opinion.
Should we automate?
Should we invest?
Should we enter a new market?
Should we adopt artificial intelligence?
More often than not, my answer begins with two words.
“It depends.”
Sometimes people are disappointed.
They were hoping for certainty.
A yes.
A no.
A clear recommendation.
Instead, they receive another question.
Why “It depends” isn’t avoiding the question
To some, “It depends” sounds indecisive.
To me, it is the opposite.
It is an acknowledgement that before we decide what to do, we first need to understand what we are trying to achieve.
It depends on the objective.
It depends on the constraints.
It depends on the people involved.
It depends on the timing.
It depends on how we define success.
Without context, even the best answer can become the wrong decision.
Thirty years taught me one lesson
I’ve been fortunate to work across engineering, manufacturing, programme management, operations, business development, energy storage and, more recently, artificial intelligence.
The industries changed.
The lesson never did.
The organisations were different.
The products were different.
The technologies were different.
Yet the mistakes were remarkably similar.
People rushed towards solutions before agreeing on the problem.
Better questions
Engineering taught me that elegant ideas must survive reality.
Manufacturing taught me that complexity always has a cost.
Operations taught me that every decision creates consequences.
Business development taught me that people buy confidence before they buy products.
Technology continues to remind me that tools only create value when they solve the right problem.
Each experience reinforced the same lesson.
Better decisions rarely begin with better answers.
They begin with better questions.
The temptation of certainty
We live in a world that rewards confidence.
Simple answers spread quickly.
Absolute opinions attract attention.
Reality is usually more complicated.
The best leaders I’ve worked with weren’t the quickest to answer.
They were often the quickest to ask the question everyone else had overlooked.
Curiosity is frequently mistaken for uncertainty.
I’ve found it to be one of the greatest strengths a leader can possess.
A compass
A compass doesn’t choose your destination.
It doesn’t tell you which road to take.
It simply tells you where you are.
Only then can you decide where to go.
I’ve come to believe good decisions work much the same way.
They begin with understanding.
They are shaped by context.
And they improve when we ask better questions.
Sometimes, the most honest answer is:
“It depends.”
—
Jeffrey Lew