Just Dribble

Reality never matches the plan. Markets shift, assumptions crack, conditions change. When the gap opens up, most teams do one of two things - stick rigidly to the plan or abandon it entirely. Both are wrong.

The plan created shared expectations and accountability. That matters. You can’t just throw it out three weeks in because things got harder. But you also can’t solve back to the plan when the world has changed. The right response sits between these two.

When you built the plan, you developed awareness - what matters most, where dependencies sit, what signals to watch for, what trade-offs you’re willing to make. That awareness is what you use when reality diverges. Not the document, the understanding.

Good leaders don’t defend the plan or discard it. They use what they learned from planning to make the right call given current reality. The market moved faster than expected? Use your understanding of what matters to re-sequence, not to pretend the original timeline still works. A key assumption broke? Use your awareness of dependencies to adjust scope, not to barrel ahead anyway.

The plan is your starting point. When conditions change, you adapt based on what you learned building it.

Think of it like dribbling. Heads down - check the plan, the details, where you’re meant to be. Heads up - read what’s actually happening, where the opportunity opened up, where the threat emerged. Back and forth. You’re moving with the plan whilst reading reality, adjusting your direction whilst keeping momentum.

Pull up your current plan. Pick the area where reality has diverged most - timeline slipped, market moved, assumption broke. Now ask: when we built this plan, what did we learn matters most? What dependencies did we map? What trade-offs were we willing to make?

Use those answers to make your call. Not “how do we get back on plan” but “given what’s happening now, what’s the right move?” The plan gave you the understanding. Use it.

The goal isn’t to follow the plan. It’s to use what you learned from planning to navigate what’s real.

Related: What Looks Like Instinct · When Someone Leaves · Reading Guide