More than five whys and “layer eight” problems
I like to think about this sort of stuff in terms of strategy. The definition I use is &#x27;strategical goals&#x27; are the things you are trying to achieve, and &#x27;strategy&#x27; is the &#x27;why, how, what&#x27;s the rationale for these, when do we revisit the goals and the strategy, etc.&#x27;. Strategical goals can be high level or low level. In some cases you can take part in a big picture company strategy process. In other cases, the strategical goals you have as an individual are to support the goals&#x2F;ways of working of your boss, and the other people you work with, which you can only comprehend in a very blinkered way.<p>In all these situations, it seems like some of the time, and for a critical part of what you do a lot of the time, you have to have strategies that take into account other people having hidden motivations, and particularly people who don&#x27;t think strategically and cannot be reasoned with on the basis of strategy, or they refuse to be open with these sorts of things with you in particular, or will be evasive, or say they will do things and then not do them, etc.. A lot of the time you cannot fix these things, you can only take them into account and&#x2F;or find workarounds. And it seems reasonable to say that this is the part of the picture where you have the most leverage to make a difference, or to reduce things like the amount of bullshit you deal with, or the amount of wasted effort you put into things.<p>You can also have the insight that other people will see you the same way - as someone who is obstructive, or fails to be clear, or isn&#x27;t persuing the right goals, etc..