I love my GPS, it has saved me so many times from getting lost in countries across the world.  It’s found us restaurants and petrol stations, ferry ports and railway stations.  But just every now and then this most reliable of friends gets something horribly wrong and I find that I’m in a farmyard or passing a road sign that clearly shows I am completely lost.  After quite a bit of muttering, a few U turns and some fast re-calculating we get back on track and get to our destination. 

I imagine this is familiar to everyone reading this.  At the end of the day, it’s the U turn that saves you.  So, what is wrong with the U turn?  Since Mrs Thatcher’s famous “U turn if you want to” speech politicians who change their minds are sure of a furious reception on the front page of nearly every piece of news media.  What is going on here and why are we so reluctant to admit that we got it wrong.  Donald Trump famously (and erroneously) used to chant “promises made, promises kept” even when the original promise was impossible to deliver and often downright stupid.  CEO’s who do not deliver on their market guidance tend to have short careers even when circumstances have changed.

As children we are taught about the sacredness of the promise.  As a parent you know all about the scream “But you promised, It’s not fair”. Sometimes the fury is deserved but often promises no longer make sense in a changing environment. Politicians currently making nonsense promises to deliver on the 2019 manifesto clearly have missed the fact that in between 2019 and 2022 there was a pandemic, Brexit, a European war, an energy crisis, galloping inflation and a looming recession.  How could any plans made in 2019 have any relevance today?

All plans, short-term tactical and long term strategic need to be continually reviewed in the harsh light of reality. Holding on to the same plans can be a sign of conviction but it can also be a sign of stupidity and stubbornness.  Good leaders know this, they adapt and explain. The U turn is what helped us evolve, we change because we grow, we change because we learn.  Realising you were wrong is a sign of mental flexibility and adaptability.  So next time you have to make a U turn, do it with pride.