Here's a question that reveals everything about organizational success:
You have two teams hiking a mountain.
Team A: Expert hikers with top-tier skills, experience, and capability. But they're unclear on which summit they're aiming for.
Team B: Average hikers with modest skills and limited experience. But every single person on the team is crystal clear on exactly which summit they're climbing.
Which team reaches the top first?
If you chose Team B, you understand something fundamental about business, leadership, and human achievement that many organizations miss entirely.
Jason Jannati, an EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) implementer who learned this lesson through painful experience, puts it simply:
"Team B. You might have to help them over a few things. They might need a little bit of help over some stuff, but eventually they all know where they're going. Every movement is purposeful."
Now consider Team A—your expert hikers. On paper, they should dominate. They have superior skills, better equipment knowledge, and proven track records.
But without clarity on the destination, something insidious happens:
Every decision becomes a debate.
Should we turn left or right at this fork? Is this the path we should take? Was that last choice correct? Are we even going the right direction?
"Even when you have top-class talent, if they're not clear on where they're going, every decision has to be second-guessed, debated," Jason explains.
The expertise becomes a liability. Because smart people with unclear direction don't just execute poorly—they spend their energy questioning, debating, and second-guessing instead of moving forward.
This isn't just a clever metaphor. It's the reality playing out in organizations every single day.
Think about your own team or business:
Do you have Team A syndrome?
Or do you have Team B clarity?
What does "crystal clear on the summit" actually mean in a business context?
It's more than a mission statement on the wall or a vague "grow the business" directive. True summit clarity means every person in your organization can answer:
1. Where exactly are we going?
2. How will we know when we get there?
3. Why does this summit matter?
4. What's my role in getting us there?
Here's the counterintuitive reality: expertise without direction is often worse than modest skill with clear purpose.
Why?
Expert Team A behaviors:
Every team member's expertise becomes a competing voice. And without a clear summit to align those voices, you get what Jason describes: constant second-guessing and debate.
Average Team B behaviors:
The clarity creates unity. The shared destination focuses energy. The purpose makes every movement count.
This principle shows up everywhere in business:
Sales Teams: A team of mediocre salespeople with crystal-clear ideal customer profiles and value propositions will outperform a team of sales stars who each chase different types of deals with different messaging.
Product Development: Average developers aligned on the specific problem they're solving ship better products than genius developers building features without strategic focus.
Real Estate Investing: Investors with clear criteria (geography, asset class, return targets, timeline) build portfolios faster than sophisticated investors chasing every "good deal" that comes along.
Startups: Founders with average execution skills but total clarity on their market and customer often beat brilliant founders still "figuring out their strategy."
If you lead a team, manage a department, or run a company, the summit question cuts to the core of your effectiveness:
Can every person in your orbit clearly articulate:
If the answer is no—or if you'd get different answers from different people—you have a Team A problem.
And here's the truth: you can't hire or train your way out of a clarity problem.
So how do you move from Team A to Team B?
1. Define the summit specifically Don't say "be successful." Say "reach $10M in recurring revenue serving mid-market healthcare companies by Q4 2027."
Don't say "grow the portfolio." Say "acquire 25 multifamily properties in the Northeast corridor averaging 15% cash-on-cash returns within 36 months."
2. Communicate relentlessly Clarity isn't a one-time announcement. It's a drumbeat. The summit should come up in every meeting, every decision, every hire, every strategy discussion.
3. Use it as a decision filter When debating paths forward, ask: "Which option moves us closer to the summit?" The destination becomes your decision-making criteria.
4. Make it visible If someone walked into your office or workspace, could they tell what summit you're climbing? Or would they have to guess?
5. Test for alignment Ask team members individually where the organization is headed. If you get consistent answers, you have clarity. If you get variations, you have work to do.
In a world obsessed with hiring top talent, acquiring expertise, and building capabilities, clarity is the underrated competitive advantage.
Because here's what happens when you get it right:
You might have to "help them over a few things." You might need to develop skills along the way. But every movement is purposeful. Every step counts. Every team member knows where they're going.
You can build a team of experts and watch them debate themselves into paralysis.
Or you can build a team of committed people united by crystal-clear direction and watch them climb mountains.
The choice sounds obvious when you put it that way.
But look at your organization today. Look at your team. Look at your own work.
Which team are you on?
And more importantly: does everyone know which summit you're climbing?
Because if they don't, all that expertise you've assembled is just burning energy in circles.
The summit is waiting. The only question is whether your team can see it clearly enough to get there.
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