Efficiency vs. Exploration: Find the Right Level of Wandering

Efficiency does not always mean effective. Ironically, the right amount of wandering might be optimal for your purposeful growth.

This article is for you if:

• You are super focused and intentional. Somehow, it feels stressful, joyless, and limited.

• You have been exploring but need to know if you have done enough or too much wandering. You fluctuate between feeling guilty and lost.

Whether you've found your calling or are still searching, thriving or struggling, embracing a healthy level of unstructured exploration might bring unexpected benefits. Unstructured exploration is not the intentional extra-curricular activity that you can link to your current path of growth. It is the exploration you pursue for the joys and excitement without knowing exactly how it will fit into your future. Removing the "utility" allows you to step out of your current trajectory while focusing on "joy" ensures that the activity is related to your fulfillment, even though you have not figured out how.

We will start with building the conviction that some "play" is good for you, and then create the structure so that you "play" with boundaries, avoiding aimless play that erodes your resources.

Successful companies can languish when they stay too fixed on a path

Innovation theory has shown again and again that companies risk being disrupted if they are too set in their current path that blinds them from new opportunities and blocks their innovation efforts. Since companies cannot predict how they will be disrupted, even successful companies set aside budgets to pursue projects that do not immediately align with the company’s strategic focus. For example, Google set up Moonshot Factory, P&G launched P&G Ventures, and Johnson & Johnson has JLABS. On the other hand, Kodak’s rigid focus on their existing domination in film led to their downfall, despite being one of the first to develop the technology of digital cameras. Paradoxically, focusing too hard on predetermined success can lead to a suboptimal destination.

In the case of struggling companies, Honda’s expansion to the US is a classic case of emergent strategy. While promoting their larger motorcycles without much success, they noticed an unexpected interest in the smaller Super Cubs, originally brought for employee use. Honda didn’t plan to test these, but by staying open to market signals, they stumbled upon a winning strategy. Had they been 100% focused on their original models, they would have missed out and likely withdrawn from the U.S. market.[1]

How some diversified play can be good for you

In “Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul” (National Bestseller by Stuart Brown M.B. and Christopher Vaughan), the authors prove how purposeless play encourages creativity and discovery while boosting flexibility in problem-solving. Clay Christensen, renowned Harvard Business School professor, advised embracing an emergent strategy in career planning in “How will you measure your life.” Famously, Steve Jobs suggested that the dots connect backward, not forward. However, if you have only been collecting the same or very similar dots (i.e. only staying deliberate), there is not much connecting to do.

I’ve experienced how a random indulgence in my curiosity has changed my life. When I bought an Improv Acting class from Groupon, I didn’t expect it to lead to more classes, training on a Broadway stage, and a deeper curiosity about human behaviors. My growing acting gigs and reinforced passion for human development became a focal point of my Harvard application. Acting has nurtured my empathy and self-leadership, steering me toward clearer career aspirations. I could have easily rationalized my way out of it, but I allocated time for it, even in the midst of my consulting career and CFA studies.

I also went through periods of intense focus. When I returned to a CEO role after my maternity leave, I spent almost a year living with complete intention. Every action was deliberate and efficient. It was not like I was robotic. Far from it, I was full of emotion as both a mom and startup leader. However, there was a lack of joyful wonders, liberating openness, or expansiveness. I was growing, yes, but not elevating. It felt like I stayed on the same ground without cracking open a window to explore new universes. Not until I relaxed my own bounds that I started seeing the business and motherhood more colorfully and dynamically, letting in more innovation and fulfillment.

How much can you afford to wander?

You might have already guessed it - there is a healthy level of wandering. Too much can leave you demoralized, lost, and depleting your resources - whether it’s financial, your own self-confidence, or others’ confidence in you. 

To wander effectively, you must first have a deliberate strategy or key focus on which you spend at least 80% of your time. Wandering should be kept to no more than 20%, which can be spent on one or multiple explorations. 

For instance, if you’re working on three ideas, one core hypothesis should claim the majority of your time and energy. It is different from allocating a third of your time to each idea, which you might end up expanding to 5 ideas that go nowhere. Unless you are wildly talented, putting less than 80% focus on an initiative will only result in sub-par results. Imagine driving multiple initiatives that are half-baked, where you neither succeed nor fail. In this case, the lack of commitment (and maybe the courage to face failure if you commit) will create a dozen zombie initiatives that suck the life out of you.

It’s unstructured exploration, or “emergent strategy”, only when done alongside a deliberate strategy. Otherwise, you are just aimless drifting. That’s the fastest way for startups to die and weary explorers to end up lost.

Keep a discipline for yourself - whether you tend to explore too little or too much - so that you can find the joy and unexpected elevation that fuel your unique path of fulfillment.

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[1] Christensen, C. M., Allworth, J., & Dillon, K. (2012). How will you measure your life? HarperCollins.