Strategy As an Organization’s Nervous System
Control the feedback loop
Christopher Columbus didn’t intend to discover America.
In 1492, his BHAG, a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, was to find the western sea route from Spain to India and China.
But on his way to the west, he stumbled upon a continent no one in Europe knew about.
His discovery turned out to be even more valuable than he had planned. However, in business, most strategic mistakes rarely have such happy endings.
Feedback loop
Stefan Betz is 28. He suffers from a very rare genetic disorder called “congenital insensitivity to pain,” or CIP. Put simply, he doesn’t feel pain. If he stubs his toes or bites his tongue, he feels nothing.
The CIP isn’t a superpower. His body’s feedback loop is broken.
This feedback loop is based on our nervous system. It consists of signals that your body organs send to your brain, analysis, and decision-making processes, signals from your brain to muscles and other organs, and subsequent actions.
If you accidentally touch a hot oven, and the f…