Imagine you’re about to set sail across a large lake. You can barely see the other side, it looks dark and stormy, deep and scary, and there are monsters, or at least rumours of monsters.

There are two approaches to getting to the other side:

• Over-prepare the ship, over arm it, over armour it, and weigh it down with lots of defence capability, and then set sail across the perilous lake.
• Listen to the locals who say “No, what you do is you go around the edge of the lake and park in Safe Harbours. You don’t need a big well-armed, well-armoured ship. You just need a little rowboat”.

In terms of the Productivity Journey:

• Overpreparing your 'ship' (your commercial plan for the journey) means preparing for all conceivable eventualities of a long trip, even though you know they may later prove to be a mirage.
• If you follow the Safe Harbours approach, you don't need to spend as much time and effort getting ready or completing training before you start. You are planning a short trip and then re-provisioning at the next port for another short trip to be started when the conditions are right.

The total journey around the lake (Safe Harbours) requires less time and effort than it would be to “prepare” to go across the lake. This is because:

• You don't have to over-commit resourcing in advance
• You get to make small reversible changes to reality that are each quickly stable.
• You can control and limit your operational risk exposure.