The “70 percent solution today” versus the “90 percent solution tomorrow” encapsulates the apprehension smart people have about decentralizing command. As I explored earlier this week, empowerment can actually produce the 90 percent solution today — but that’s context-dependent. It’s not a general rule.
What I can say with more confidence is this: alignment and autonomy aren’t opposites. You don’t trade one for the other. You need both, simultaneously, or the whole thing falls apart.
Helmuth von Moltke, the architect of Prussian mission command, validated this. High alignment enables high autonomy — you align the organization entirely around intent, the what and the why, while granting absolute autonomy over the how. To make that work, he embedded a cultural rule that has stuck with me all week: failure to act is a far graver offense than making a mistake.
Here’s where it gets uncomfortable. Von Moltke built this entire system of decentralized trust — and then abandoned it completely during a crisis, issuing direct, micromanaged orders because the situation demanded it.
It’s the consultant’s answer I’ve spent all week arguing against — it depends. But the big idea isn’t decentralization as a rule. It’s knowing when to empower and when to take over. That onus sits entirely with the leader. There are no clear rules for when to switch between the two.
So how does any of this apply to a normal corporate environment, where nobody’s life is on the line? I don’t know yet. That’s the question I’m taking into next week.