When your context has shifted, but your direction hasn’t
(A true story of sunshine and sandbanks)
10 minute read
Earlier this year, my dear friend Liz and I set off on a wild adventure to the beautiful Kurangk / Coorong National Park.
Swags in the tinnie, three days of swimming, wildlife, beach camping and laughing until our faces hurt. And, as expected, a few comedy mishaps along the way.
One in particular got me thinking.
We were navigating our way home through shallow, silty, tidal water where the channel shifts constantly.
There are channel markers in place, but they’re not always reliable because the channel moves faster than they do.
We followed them anyway: it’s what you’re supposed to do, and these big steel structures have an assertive look that is hard to argue with 🙂
Of course, we ran aground.
Nothing dramatic – and actually quite funny.
Just stuck in the middle of a channel that technically existed, but not where we thought it did.
After an hour’s muddy pushing and shoving we were on our way again – but this time differently. I pulled out the chart and started lining things up against fixed points on land (houses, trees) which weren’t going to move.From there, it was straightforward.
What got us into mischief wasn’t a lack of effort. It was following a path that was no longer accurate.
What got us out was stepping back, getting a clear reference point, and choosing the route deliberately.
That moment – following a path which was no longer relevant – comes up more often than you’d expect in my work with teams and business owners. This is what strategic drift looks like in practice.
Where this shows up in business: the Inertia Trap
I see a version of this play out in business all the time. Not when things are failing, but when things are working – but not working well.
Sure, clients are coming in. The work is getting done. And revenue is steady enough. But at the same time:
You’re asked what you do, and the answer depends on who’s talking.
– Clients value the work, but each one describes it differently.
– Enquiries are coming in, but few are a great fit.
– You have a vision for a new direction, but you keep being held back by current projects.
– You’re putting time and money into marketing, but it’s hard to pinpoint what’s actually driving results.
And the same strategic questions keep resurfacing:
- What are we focusing on?
- What do we want to be known for now?
- Where are we actually heading?
But they don’t get resolved: they get deferred.
When things are working — but not working well underneath
At that point, most businesses respond in a predictable way: they revert to busyness:
- More LinkedIn content
- Another campaign
- A website refresh
- Trying the latest tactic
- More meetings to “get alignment”
All of these can be useful – but none of them can fix a lack of direction.
What’s really going on
In my work I often see this problem: the context has shifted, but the direction hasn’t been redefined to match.
Sometimes that shift is internal: Your capability has moved on. The level of work you can do has changed. The opportunities available to you are different. Often, this looks comes with growth.
Sometimes it’s external: Clients are comparing more options before they engage. They expect clearer value and differentiation. Lower-cost and AI-enabled alternatives are entering the mix.
Either way, you’re operating in a different environment. But parts of the business are still being run on old strategic decisions: what you lead with, how you describe the work, which opportunities you attract.
The quiet cost of a business without clear direction
The funny thing is, a business adrift doesn’t usually feel like a crisis. It feels like a busy but frustrating week – followed by another one.
Plenty is happening – but not enough is changing. You’re working hard, but it’s difficult to point to meaningful progress in the areas that actually matter:
- the work you want more of
- the position you want to build
- the direction you keep saying you’re moving towards.
What this looks like in practice
This is a pattern I see all the time in the teams and businesses I work with.
Across different sectors, markets and contexts: but almost always in the same type of organisation:
- Expert-led, knowledge-intensive businesses
- Strong capability
- Strong reputation
- Plenty of opportunity.
And increasingly, a level of complexity that has outpaced the clarity of their positioning and direction. When the strategic drfit kicks in it looks like:
- Good work is happening, but it isn’t building a clearer or stronger position.
- Decisions slow down or get revisited, because there’s no clear basis for choosing.
- Marketing effort increases, but it’s still unclear what’s bringing in the right work, and what isn’t.
This is where the cost starts to build: not always as obvious revenue loss, but in how the week actually feels:
“I’m busy all day, but I couldn’t tell you what actually moved forward.”
“I keep being pulled into “urgent” problems: nothing gets finished properly.”
“We’re working hard, but it’s not showing up in the numbers.”
“I’ve been meaning to do some planning but it keeps getting rescheduled”
Worst of all, these symptoms actually reinforce the hamster wheel the business is on: by making it spin faster and faster.
The two reasons you stay stuck: even when you know something needs to shift
Now, you might be thinking the obvious question: “If this is such a problem, why don’t we just fix it?”. The answer is one of two reasons, which I see again and again.
Reason #1: There isn’t space to step back: even when you know you need to
Strategic decisions don’t get made between meetings, in the car, or at the end of a long day.
They need a different kind of space – away from delivery, noise, and immediate demands – with enough distance to see clearly and decide properly.
Most businesses struggle to create that space, so decisions get deferred in ways that sound reasonable:
- “We’ll look at direction next quarter when things calm down.”
- “We’ll look at direction next quarter when things calm down.”
- “Let’s just keep things moving for now.”
Reason #2: Something is being held on to (and it’s costing more than it looks)
The thing is, even when change makes sense, it often feels like more trouble than it’s worth. Mostly because:
- The existing model is still producing revenue
- Clients expect a certain type of work
- Even the tired parts of the business feel familiar, proven, and easier to continue than to change.
This is where the Sunken Cost Fallacy shows up in real terms: a decision pattern of continuing with what’s already in place because of what’s been invested in it, even when it no longer makes sense.
(Like me in my tinnie on the Coorong — following the markers because they were there, even though they no longer reflected the actual channel.)
What to do instead (without starting from scratch)
This isn’t about starting again. It’s about taking control of direction, deliberately.
In practice, that usually comes down to a small number of decisions:
- what the business is building towards now
- what you want to be known for
- which work you are actively moving towards
- which work you are no longer structuring the business around
From there, the work becomes clearer:
- deciding what to continue, what to test, and what to stop
- aligning leadership around those choices
- translating direction into practical action
- bringing the team with you
Clear decisions tighten focus and conserve energy. They make it easier to choose what to say yes to – and what to decline – without rethinking it every time.
Without them, the business expands into a weird mix of too much and too little: too much activity, with too little movement in the right direction. A slow, steady entanglement, which weighs the business down and makes it hard to spot real opportunities when they arise.
A simple way to check where you are : in just 10 minutes
When I’m working with a client to check how well their focus and activity aligns with their vision, we will often start by exploring what’s actually happening.
Simple indicators like:
- When someone asks what you do, what do you say? Is it consistent?
- Look at your last 10 enquiries. How many are for the work you want more of? How many reflect an earlier version of the business?
- Look at your revenue mix. Which work is driving it? Is it aligned with where you want to go, or anchoring you to where you’ve been?
- How clear is your vision for the next stage of the business?
Then we look for the decision that all the other decisions are waiting for. Not just “we need a new strategy” but something more specific. Nine times out of then it’s one of these:
- which work you lead with
- which clients you prioritise
- what you stop positioning around
- how the future looks
- what’s working, what isn’t
We’re looking for the one decision that would simplify all the others, and get the business untangled again.
On the Coorong, when we finally lined up our course to something that wasn’t moving, the path became obvious. Until then, we were just reacting to what was in front of us.
Changing that changed everything.
If this feels familiar
If this feels familiar, it’s often a sign the business needs clearer direction before moving ahead with anything else (a new hire, partnership, rebrand, website, campaign, or further marketing spend).
That’s usually the point where it makes sense to step back and define what the business is actually building towards.
That’s the work I do: helping expert-led organisations clarify what they want to be known for, and make confident decisions about what to focus on next.
You can find out more at www.humanbrands.com.au or get in touch directly at: emily@humanbrands.com.au