“If I drive to the airport, I don’t choose the fastest, straightest road - I choose the most reliable one,” said Rory Sutherland, Ogilvy’s Vice Chairman.
And yet, GPS would still advise the fastest one. - I once was stuck in traffic for 1h on my way to the airport. Turns out, "the shortest" doesn't always mean "the fastest" when it's also the most popular with other drivers.
The fastest way to lose weight? Stop eating.
But it’s neither safe, sustainable, nor reliable.
That’s why calorie counting, however inconvenient, remains one of the most effective and trusted methods - it’s predictable. However unpleasant and boring. (That's where AI has a lot of catching up to do - it's simply, not predictable, however fast)
Yesterday, I was reminded just how much predictability matters to humans.
A pipe burst in my neighbor’s flat. The repair team arrived, and soon after, my apartment filled with the deafening sound of drilling all of a sudden.
Impossible to work. Impossible to think.
I went downstairs to talk to them. Fifteen minutes later, and after a few calls to the property owner, I finally got the only piece of information I truly cared about:
When will this end? - aka predictability of my day moving forward.
I didn’t care to see the wall. Or the pipe. Or the reason it had to be fixed right now. (I listened to exactly this for 15 minutes)
All I wanted was a sense of control over my day, to know what to expect, how to adjust.
In Hout Bay, where I live, water pipes burst regularly.
It’s unpredictable. But what the city got right is this: they log every incident, evaluate it, and tell residents online exactly when repairs will be done by.
I don’t mind those interruptions anymore.
We humans can all adapt, as long as we know what we’re adapting to, what to expect.
Years ago, Transport for London figured out the same truth.
They didn’t make the Underground trains faster, more frequent, or even more reliable to reduce complaints, stress, anxiety of the travelers.
They simply displayed how long until the next train arrives.
That small act of giving people clear expectations was everything people really wished for.
People didn’t need perfection, they wanted a sense of control.
It’s the same in leadership, business, sales and relationships.
When things shift, plans break, or progress slows, you don’t have to promise perfection.
You just have to set the right expectations.
Even an imperfect truth builds more trust than uncertain silence, or promising what you can't guarantee to deliver.
Good lesson for me as well in coaching, sales or building solutions and trust - certainty is what people value the most.
