One surprising thing that I learned about martial arts is that at the highest levels, it is about conservation of energy and well timed exertion more than giving it all you have and winning with a single motion. As a white belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu you know maybe one choke, and your best hope to make it through a sparring round (other than tapping or gassing out) is to aggressively manoeuvre yourself into a position, close the submission to the best of your ability, and hope the other guy taps out before you black out. A black belt will let the other guy roll into their position before springing one of a few submissions. There’s exertion when they close the trap and, sure, they’re in much better shape than you — but what separates the great ones from the best isn’t raw power.

I think about this sometimes at work. Organizations quickly reach a size that defies the efforts of any individual or small group to make rapid directional changes overnight. It’s possible, but it requires an exertion of energy that may kill you, and you only get to do it once or twice. Black belts in business will roll with the team, making adjustments as they go, and have multiple positions where they could exert energy, quickly, to get something done by either discouraging a wrong direction or (more often) over-funding and enthusiastically encouraging the right one. The flexibility to accept organizational dynamics and let them play out to align a team with strategic goals is key to getting stuff done and, well, not blacking out mid-quarter. This is where the often incorrectly-applied word, “strategy”, meets day to day execution.