Tracker mindset
The buzz surrounding AI has given rise to a new language of strategy, one that puts presence above planning.
With the cacophony of claims about what AI can deliver, many leaders are unsure what or whom to believe. There is such a disorienting number of things to process, such an unyielding rate of change, that these decision-makers feel stuck.
They need a more manageable approach. Far better to shrink the dimensions of the current challenge, pursuing an ‘AI win’ rather than an ‘AI strategy’, at least for now.
Paradoxically, as technology becomes more dominant in our lives, there's a need to revive some of the deepest, most ancient elements of our humanity. Long ago, in our nomadic phase, we all used to be trackers, and tracking skills seem to be relevant right now.
Boyd Varty, in The Lion Tracker's Guide to Life, boils the tracker mindset down to this phrase: "I don't know where I'm going, but I know how to get there." In other words, the final destination may be unclear, but the next move is unmistakable.
It can be intuited through presence, which means paying attention to the clues that progressively reveal our footpath. It means recognizing a new track as it appears.
For trackers, the bush is a place where one speaks the language of presence, following ephemeral clues rather than a fixed terrain map. In the era of AI, market complexity feels increasingly analogous to the bush.
Within such a context, observant discovery is more important than having a master plan. In the bush, as in the market, there are many ways to reach the target, not just one. Failure stems from the reluctance to make a choice in the moment.
A revenue leader could hold off on making AI investments until all the factors relevant to a strategic plan have been clearly defined. Or a revenue leader could find an AI win by introducing a specific new AI capability that immediately pushes the team's performance frontier.
Joseph Campbell once said that “if you can see your whole life’s path laid out then it’s not your life’s path.” Similarly, for many leaders, defining an AI strategy would be a questionable use of their time, considering all the unknowable unknowns. A tracker mindset would simply identify their first tracks. Then their next first tracks.
We don't know where we are going, but we know how to get there.