In the Weeds

“You’re in the weeds!”

I absolutely understand and support the need to stay high-level in a high-level discussion. If we’re talking about something at a strategic level, we need to focus on the big picture.

At the same time, there’s a snake, we’ve seen the snake, and the snake is somewhere over there in the weeds.

I think it’s important to be mindful that the overall direction we’re outlining will support the operational discussions down the road. The people who are asked to jump into the weeds need to trust that leadership will listen and actively engage when it turns out there’s a snake.

An elegant architecture or a well-written strategic document demonstrates that it considers the end-user experience and everything required to deliver it, even though it doesn’t cover every detail.

In our conversations and collaborations, let’s stay high-level when appropriate , but recognize that on the ground, under the weeds, is where our users experience what we do.