Every Map Lies
Leaders love maps. They make chaos look manageable. They give us lines, colors, and the illusion of control. But every map lies — not maliciously, just necessarily. A map is a reduction, a guess. It simplifies reality to help us move through it.
The trouble comes when we start trusting the map more than the terrain.
We forget that every plan, model, and framework was drawn from someone else’s landscape. Then we wonder why our strategy keeps getting lost.
Patterns I See
Legacy logic: Using yesterday’s map to navigate today’s landscape.
Plan addiction: Refusing to adjust course when the road ends because the map said it was there.
Blind delegation: Mistaking a consultant’s clarity for actual understanding.
What Leaders Miss
No map is reality. It’s a projection of one perspective — useful until it isn’t.
Maps create confidence, but they also create blind spots. We grow attached to our models because they once worked, not because they still do. We don’t notice when the landscape shifts beneath us.
Reality doesn’t care about your PowerPoint.
Working With It
Re-ground in reality. Get out of the boardroom. Walk the floor, talk to customers, and listen for what’s changed.
Update your map. Every strategy has a half-life. Review, revise, redraw.
Use multiple lenses. Combine data, intuition, and lived experience. None of them are complete alone.
Embrace disorientation. Feeling lost is how you learn to see again.
Questions Worth Asking
Where am I clinging to an old model because it once made me look smart?
What’s changed in the landscape that my current map doesn’t show?
Who helps me see what I can’t?
If the map is wrong, will I notice before the cliff?
Field Truth
The map is not the territory.
When reality and the plan disagree — reality wins.
