All roads lead to Rome they say, and they’re right, or at least they were, during the Roman Empire, which was a long time ago.
These days, however, we often have a tendency to think that only one way leads to success. That is of course fine, and indeed we recently wrote about the value of simple plans which are easy to stick to. It is equally important though, that we appreciate detours do not mean not reaching our destination.
Good plans, even the simple binary ones we spoke of recently, allow us to make detours along the way to our goals. Indeed it is often on these detours that we learn valuable insights.
Taking an alternative route to our goal does not mean that our plan has failed, derailed, or even that it will necessarily take longer, it just means you have taken a detour.
There is most often value in detours, sometimes simply the value of knowing what will not work, sometimes having found a more effective way to do something. At the very least there is experience, at best we make discoveries which will help us with this, or other, tasks.
Documenting what we find, quickly, simply, and in a way that we can come back to, is important when we find ourselves on a detour – but most important of all is accepting that many routes lead where we are going, some more direct than others.
helleau® documents findings in the detours we take, some findings will help us and clients in the future, all help us learn.
