← Start with Part 1: Course Drift
Part 3 of Navigation & Drift
Knowing Which Battles to Fight
Strategic restraint in complex systems.
Good captains don’t fight every battle available to them.
That’s a recurring lesson in Patrick O’Brian’s novels – and in leadership more broadly.
Sometimes the conditions are wrong.
Sometimes the ship isn’t ready.
Sometimes the crew is exhausted.
Sometimes the risk outweighs the prize.
And sometimes the smartest move is preserving the ship for the battles worth fighting.
I frequently see biotech teams struggle with this.
Every new capability becomes a possible product.
Every promising result becomes another program.
Every opportunity feels too important to ignore.
But without discipline, optionality turns into drift.
The best leaders I’ve worked with weren’t afraid to say “no.”
Not because they lacked ambition.
Because they understood that focus is what allows organizations to move decisively.
In complex systems, discipline is often a greater advantage than speed.
Next in Navigation & Drift →