Experience Changes the Kind of Clarity You Need
John Cutler argues that experienced people need fewer instructions but more strategic clarity, and leaders often mistake their exercise of judgment for being high maintenance.
Source Information
- Author: John Cutler
- Newsletter: The Beautiful Mess
- Read on: LinkedIn
- URL: Experience Changes the Kind of Clarity You Need
Core Argument
Leaders sometimes call their most experienced people “high maintenance” because those people keep asking for direction. Cutler thinks this mixes up two different needs: the need for instructions (how to do the work) and the need for strategic clarity (what the work is meant to achieve). Leaders hire experienced people for their judgment, and then read the use of that judgment as neediness.
Key Points (paraphrased)
- Juniors take the assignment as given; seniors question it. Experienced people can see when doing exactly what was asked would work against the outcome it was meant to serve.
- Uncertainty is not the same as strategic conflict. Experienced people handle uncertainty well: they make assumptions, run experiments and learn as they go. No amount of expertise can reconcile organisational goals that are actually incompatible. Asking for clarity is not the same as demanding certainty.
- The kind of clarity changes. Juniors need to be told what to do next. Seniors need actionable nuance: fewer instructions, but no less strategic specificity.
- Expertise makes context matter more. Small differences in incentives, constraints or priorities can push an expert towards a completely different approach, so they go looking for the details that matter.
- More ways to handle competing goals. Experienced people can sequence goals, find compromises, test whether both can be had, or spot when chasing both means getting neither.
- Ambiguity can make them look indecisive. They can see second-order effects and conflicting commitments that others miss, so what looks like hesitation may be a better grasp of the decision.
- Autonomy over execution ≠ authority over strategy. “Figure it out” can quietly hand over an unresolved strategic decision without the authority to make it.
The Final Caveat
Experienced people can also tell how much patience an organisation has for their questions. Told to “stop overthinking,” they may comply, but what looks like alignment may just be them working around the unresolved issues while avoiding irreversible commitments, keeping options open and letting flawed logic expose itself over time.
Atomic Notes
Related Concepts
- [[Ownership Trio]]: asking for strategic clarity is asking for the missing mandate
- [[Broken Ownership Archetypes]]: the “Foot Soldier” is the experienced person who has knowledge and responsibility but no mandate
- [[Engineering Strategy]]: good strategy is what spares experienced people from guessing
- [[Dunning-Kruger Effect]]: expertise surfaces complexity that novices don’t see
Source: Experience Changes the Kind of Clarity You Need by John Cutler, The Beautiful Mess