# Chapter 6: Getting Started Yourself

## Core Argument

Situational awareness is fundamental to strategy, not a luxury. Most executives lack understanding of their business landscape yet few admit it.

## The Competency Gap

Executives don't know what they don't know. Even seasoned leaders "fake it" without actual landscape understanding. Organizations conflate strategy (understanding position/movement) with tactical execution.

## Lessons from Gaming (WoW Analogy)

MMORPGs teach business principles:
- Situational awareness before engagement
- Diverse aptitudes for different challenges
- Mandatory collaboration
- Systematic preparation

Well-coordinated raid teams outperform chaotic organizations because they understand their environment.

## Anti-Pattern Organization Traits

Failing organizations exhibit:
- Cannot describe user needs
- Multiple conflicting languages/tools instead of common frameworks
- Poor transparency across silos
- Assumption-driven rather than evidence-based
- Excessive duplication resistance
- One-size-fits-all methods
- Avoidance of small, iterative approaches
- Confusion between aptitude types
- Bolted-on structures without integration

## Implementation: Coordination Function

Organizations should establish a coordination function (spend control mechanism) that:
- Encourages mapping above certain expenditure thresholds
- Identifies patterns and duplication across units
- Challenges assumptions transparently
- Promotes doctrine compliance through visibility, not force

## Mapping Principles

- "All models are wrong; some are merely useful"
- "Where before why" - identify position before justifying strategy
- Iterative, continuous learning cycles - not "Deathstar" all-encompassing efforts
- Executives must learn mapping themselves, not outsource strategic thinking

## Key Takeaways

1. Situational awareness is non-negotiable for strategy
2. Maps create common language enabling transparency
3. Implementation requires structural change via coordination functions
4. Resistance is predictable - "too busy" or "too complex" often masks power consolidation
5. Start small, iterate continuously
6. Gaming discipline and systematic approaches outpace typical corporate strategy