When Your Reach Exceeds Your Grasp

2040's Ideas and Innovations Newsletter, Issue 139

Issue 139, December 14, 2023

Here’s a question for you as we wrap up 2023: Why have so many organizations reset themselves by dramatically cutting back on their staff and operations?  Why did their aspirations seem so out of line with their new reality? Whatever happened to foresight?

This syndrome makes us think of two quotes from two distinctly different individuals. Poet Robert Browning said, “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s heaven for?” And then Teddy Roosevelt’s grave site offers a corollary thought, “Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.” And if you want to add one more layer of complexity, poet Virgil wrote in the Aeneid in 29 BC, “Reach for the stars.” So, if you unpack all this advice, you might question the sanity of what’s going on in the tech industry.

In other words, why do organizations build up their staffs and then come to the realization that what they had hoped for doesn’t match their forecasts and hopes? How could they be so disconn…