Management tools and techniques are based on a simple yet incorrect assumption: that people want their businesses to succeed.

The reality is subtly different. Often what people really want is to succeed on their own terms — with their vision, strategy and beliefs.

That's why many consultancy engagements aren’t about adding value but adding validation, analysis is mostly conducted to defend hypotheses not test them, and data is often cherry-picked to support rather than inform a narrative.

Founders often refuse to change their vision, projects must be finished because they have begun, and bad news becomes good news as it ascends the hierarchy.

There is a grand delusion at work. As the psychologist Jonathan Haidt once remarked, the rational mind is more like the Press office than the Oval office — used to justify the decisions we’ve already made — and we deploy the apparatus of the corporation to the same end.

My conclusion: the biggest superpower in business is not the right technology or resources, but the right mindset, something accessible to us all.

Open-mindedness, humility, adaptability, a willingness to learn and to change our minds are abilities we can all choose to cultivate, and will make a far bigger difference to our outcomes in the long run. #strategy

See this post on LinkedIn