_Plans create understanding. Use the understanding, not the document._ --- ## Two wrong responses Reality never matches the plan. Markets shift, assumptions crack, conditions change. When the gap opens, most teams do one of two things. Some cling to the plan. They treat divergence as a problem to be solved — how do we get back on track? They contort execution to fit a document that no longer fits the world. The plan becomes a straitjacket. Others abandon it entirely. Three weeks in, things got harder, so the plan gets shelved. Now every decision is improvised. The shared understanding that planning created — what matters, what depends on what, what trade-offs we're willing to make — gets thrown out with the document. Both are wrong. The plan isn't sacred, but it isn't worthless either. --- ## The value isn't the document When you built the plan, you developed awareness. You mapped dependencies. You identified what mattered most. You debated trade-offs and made choices. You built a shared mental model of how things fit together. That awareness is the asset. Not the timeline, not the milestones, not the slide deck. The understanding. When reality diverges, that understanding is what you use. The market moved faster than expected — use your sense of what matters to re-sequence, rather than pretending the original timeline still works. A key assumption broke — use your map of dependencies to adjust scope, rather than barrelling ahead into a wall you can now see coming. The plan gave you the lens. Keep using the lens even when you stop following the document. --- ## Heads up, heads down Think of it like dribbling a football. Heads down — you're checking position, control, where you're supposed to be. The plan, the details, the structure. Heads up — you're reading the field, seeing what's actually happening, where space opened up, where the threat emerged. Reality, live. The skill is the rhythm. Down, up, down, up. You're never just executing the plan. You're never just reacting to the moment. You're oscillating — using the structure to stay oriented while staying alive to what's actually happening. Players who only look down get tackled. Players who only look up lose the ball. The good ones move fluidly between both, adjusting direction while maintaining momentum. That's the discipline with plans. Not rigid adherence, not reactive abandonment. Just dribble. --- **Related:** [[Notes/Rehearsed Intuition|Rehearsed Intuition]] · [[Notes/When Someone Leaves|When Someone Leaves]] **See also:** [[Ideas/OODA Loop|OODA Loop]]