When management waits until the data is clear, the game is over. But that means management has to take action on a theory rather than evidence. Unfortunately, the word theory gets a bum rap at the Harvard Business School and in business in general because it’s associated with the term theoretical, which connotes impractical. But actually theory is very practical. It says this will happen and this is why; it’s a statement of cause and effect. In our teaching we have so exalted the virtues of data-driven decision making that in many ways we condemn managers only to be able to take action after the data is clear and the game is over. In many ways a good theory is more accurate than data. It allows you to see into the future more clearly.

To put ideas into action is the most difficult thing in the world.

Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.

When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.

Action without intelligence is a form of insanity, but intelligence without action is the greatest form of stupidity in the world.

Prioritization is about doing something. It's not about an excuse for inaction.

Business managers are trained for action and speed - hence the "ready, fire, aim" mentality now prevalent in so many organizations. Far too often, thinking is seen as a luxury, and collective thinking as an aberration. The link between shared understanding and effective collective action is not widely understood or recognized. Under these circumstances, asking managers to accelerate shared learning is asking them to unlearn the fundamental behaviors that they have used throughout their careers. This unlearning requires a shift in their basic assumptions.

To accelerate shared learning, there needs to be a shift in managers' thinking from "I lead" to "we learn." It is a fundamental shift, from viewing the individual manager as problem solver to seeing the manager as the creator of an accelerated shared learning environment.

On the plains of hesitation lie the blackened bones of countless millions who at the dawn of victory lay down to rest, and in resting died.

When all is said and done, a lot more is said than done.

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again because there is not effort without error and shortcomings, who knows the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows in the end the high achievement of triumph and who at worst, if he fails while daring greatly, knows his place shall never be with those timid and cold souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Never confuse movement with action.

People can't do what they can't imagine.

There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.

When you are faced with a decision - always chose the bolder option. The most extraordinary things are created by ordinary people.

How we believe, so shall we act.