“What’s important is to get out there and try stuff until you learn where your talents, interests, and priorities begin to pay off. When you find out what really works for you, then it’s time to flip from an emergent strategy to a deliberate one.” – Clayton Christensen – Author
This profound advice from Clayton Christensen encapsulates a timeless principle for personal and professional growth: the value of experimentation followed by focused commitment. Drawn from his bestselling book How Will You Measure Your Life?, the quote urges individuals to embrace trial and error in discovering their true strengths before committing to a structured path. Christensen, a renowned Harvard Business School professor, applies business strategy concepts to life’s big questions, advocating for an initial phase of exploration – termed ’emergent strategy’ – before shifting to a ‘deliberate strategy’ once clarity emerges.1,7
Who Was Clayton Christensen?
Clayton Magleby Christensen (1947-2020) was a Danish-American academic, author, and business consultant whose ideas reshaped management theory. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Brigham Young University, an MBA from Harvard, and a DBA from Harvard Business School. Christensen joined the Harvard faculty in 1992, where he taught for nearly three decades, influencing generations of leaders.1,5
His seminal work, The Innovator’s Dilemma (1997), introduced the theory of disruptive innovation, explaining how established companies fail by focusing on sustaining innovations for current customers while overlooking simpler, cheaper alternatives that disrupt markets from below. This concept has been applied to industries from technology to healthcare, predicting successes like Netflix over Blockbuster. Christensen authored over a dozen books, including The Innovator’s Solution and How Will You Measure Your Life? (2010, co-authored with James Allworth and Karen Dillon), which blends business insights with personal reflections drawn from his Mormon faith, family life, and battle with leukemia.5,6,7
In How Will You Measure Your Life?, Christensen draws parallels between corporate pitfalls and personal missteps, warning against prioritising short-term gains over long-term fulfilment. The quoted passage appears in a chapter on career strategy, using emergent and deliberate strategies as metaphors for navigating life’s uncertainties.7
Context of the Quote: Emergent vs Deliberate Strategy
Christensen distinguishes two strategic approaches, rooted in his research on successful companies. A deliberate strategy stems from conscious planning, data analysis, and long-term goals – ideal for stable, mature organisations like Procter & Gamble, which refines products based on market data.1 It requires alignment across teams, where every member understands their role in the bigger picture. However, it risks blindness to peripheral opportunities, as rigid focus on the original plan can miss disruptions.1,2
Conversely, an emergent strategy arises organically from bottom-up initiatives, experiments, and adaptations – common in startups like early Walmart, which pivoted from small-town stores after unplanned successes. Christensen notes that over 90% of thriving new businesses succeed not through initial plans but by iterating on emergent learnings, retaining resources to pivot when needed.1,5,6
The quote applies this duality to personal development: start with emergent exploration – trying diverse roles, hobbies, and pursuits – to uncover what aligns talents, interests, and priorities. Once viable paths emerge, switch to deliberate focus for sustained progress. This mirrors Honda’s accidental US motorcycle success, where employees’ side experiments trumped the formal plan.6
Leading Theorists on Emergent and Deliberate Strategy
Christensen built on foundational work by Henry Mintzberg, a Canadian management scholar. In his 1987 paper ‘Crafting Strategy’ and book Strategy Safari, Mintzberg challenged top-down planning, arguing strategies often emerge from patterns in daily actions rather than deliberate designs. He identified strategy as a ‘continuous, diverse, and unruly process’, blending deliberate intent with emergent flexibility – ideas Christensen explicitly referenced.2
- Henry Mintzberg: Pioneered the emergent strategy concept in the 1970s-80s, critiquing rigid corporate planning. His ’10 Schools of Strategy’ framework contrasts design (deliberate) with learning (emergent) schools.2
- Michael Porter: Christensen’s contemporary at Harvard, Porter championed deliberate competitive strategy via frameworks like the Five Forces and value chain (1980s). While Porter focused on positioning for advantage, Christensen highlighted how such strategies falter against disruption.1
- Robert Burgelman: Stanford professor whose research on ‘intraorganisational ecology’ influenced Christensen, showing how autonomous units drive emergent strategies within firms like Intel.5
These theorists collectively underscore strategy’s dual nature: deliberate for execution, emergent for innovation. Christensen uniquely extended this to personal life, making abstract theory accessible for leadership, coaching, and self-management.3,4
Christensen’s insights remain vital for leaders balancing adaptability with purpose, reminding us that true success – in business or life – demands knowing when to explore and when to commit.
References
1. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/emergent-vs-deliberate-strategy
2. https://onlydeadfish.co.uk/2014/08/28/emergent-and-deliberate-strategy/
3. https://blog.passle.net/post/102fytx/clayton-christensen-how-to-enjoy-business-and-life-more
4. https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1410310
6. https://www.businessinsider.com/clay-christensen-theories-in-how-will-you-measure-your-life-2012-7
7. https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1792.Clayton_M_Christensen?page=17
8. https://www.azquotes.com/author/2851-Clayton_Christensen/tag/strategy
9. https://www.mstone.dev/values-how-will-you-measure-your-life/
