We grab the first solution and justify it

Insight

Humans have a strong tendency to latch onto the first plausible solution that comes to mind and then spend their remaining energy justifying that choice rather than exploring alternatives. This confirmation bias in strategy means that the diagnosis is often reverse-engineered to support a pre-chosen action, rather than the action flowing from an honest diagnosis.

Why This Matters

This is one of the most dangerous failure modes in strategic thinking. It explains why smart people produce bad strategies — they are not stupid, they are biased. The antidote is to force yourself to generate multiple alternatives before committing, and to separate the diagnostic phase from the solution phase. Awareness of this trap is the first step to avoiding it.

Source Highlights

!Good Strategy Bad Strategy - Rumelt#^ref-19189

Related Concepts

cognitive-bias | decision-making | critical-thinking | strategy