At a conference in Vienna last week, a perceptive speaker said that “muddling through” was actually a sound strategy in many circumstances.
He was right. Our instinct is to look for the black and white solution to a problem. But that approach applies rather better in theory than in practice. The real world is a complicated and volatile place. Neat answers might sound impressive in a presentation, but they are rarely the best policy on the ground.
Instead one needs to be adaptable and opportunistic to make progress. Unfortunately business schools, economists, management consultants and how-to books can’t offer guides to “muddling through” – so it is rarely promoted as a wise philosophy for enterprises, or even countries.