#23 - The adjacent possible

As a builder, there's a familiar, frustrating pattern. You work for weeks to deliver exactly what was asked for, and the moment you demo it, the response isn't just "thank you," but "great, can it also do this?" For a long time, it felt like moving goalposts, or worse, feature creep.

But this isn't a sign of fickle stakeholders; it's the engine of progress at work. It’s a concept from complexity science called the adjacent possible: you can't clearly see the next set of possibilities until you arrive at the present. Once you build something new, a whole landscape of adjacent possibilities opens up that was simply unimaginable before.

This taught me a powerful lesson about managing expectations in the face of complexity: rather than making people see a singular grand, somewhat abstract vision upfront, build the first tangible step. Show something real that shifts the perspective and makes the adjacent possible visible.

As a leader, this requires you to get comfortable with managing the unknown. You might know the journey has a thousand steps, but only the first five are clearly visible. Your role is not to map the entire path, but to set the direction and trust the team to build those first few steps.

This trust is crucial because the adjacent possible is revealed through lived experience, not explanation. There are no shortcuts, so resist the urge to rush people to the destination. By building and shipping, the team creates a new reality, which in turn allows them to see and own what's next for themselves and for the organisation.

This is just as true for teams. The adjacent possible shouldn’t be treated as a nuisance. It’s proof you’re moving forward, with each build revealing the next horizon. Making progress towards a future that reveals itself, one step at a time.