Most professionals don't realize they're stuck in success patterns until it's too late. You use the same presentation format that worked last quarter. You pitch the same way that landed your biggest client. You write content using the approach that got the most engagement. The pattern feels strategic. But it's actually a trap. A quick diagnostic: If someone could predict your next move based on your last three, you're repeating instead of evolving. Here's why we get stuck: We mistake consistency for strategy We're too busy executing to pause and experiment We don't notice we've become predictable Fleetwood Mac understood this after Rumours became one of the best-selling albums ever. They could have made Rumours 2. Instead, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham played drums on Kleenex boxes, layered in synthesizers, and embraced punk's DIY ethos for their follow-up album Tusk. Some experiments failed. But the successful ones kept them ahead of the curve. The framework to break your own patterns: 1️⃣ Map your default approaches List your go-to methods for your three most important work activities. If they haven't changed in 6+ months, flag them for testing. 2️⃣ Run controlled experiments Pick one element to test differently: format, timing, audience, or delivery method. Keep everything else consistent to isolate results. 3️⃣ Apply the 80/20 rule Dedicate 80% of efforts to proven methods, 20% to experiments. This protects your results while building future capability. The goal isn't constant reinvention. It's strategic evolution before your reliable methods become outdated. What's one pattern you could experiment with this month? 💾 Save this post for your next planning session. ➡️ Follow Dorie Clark for more frameworks on staying ahead of industry shifts.
I often see leaders rely on the style that made them successful in their last role. Yet the context has changed, even if they haven’t. What built credibility and trust before can limit influence now. Love the framework to break our own patters, Dorie, thank you for sharing it.
Predictability kills creative advantage Dorie Clark. Even small tweaks like changing a format or delivery style can surface insights you’d never get otherwise.
Really like the 80/20 approach here—practical and easy to apply.
Love this, small experiments really do keep you ahead over time.
Great insights...and love the fun/creative visuals! 👁️
Seen this pattern in marketing teams. They stick to what worked last year without realising the market has shifted.
The line about predictability being the signal is an interesting one. In practice, what often gets reinforced is the behaviour that delivered results last time, especially when the stakes are high. It starts to feel less like a choice and more like the only safe way to operate. The difficulty is that by the time it becomes obvious to others, it has usually been embedded internally for a while. Breaking it then takes more than a small experiment.
This really resonates. I caught myself in this exact loop recently, especially with how I structure my outreach and content. For a while, I was reusing a format that had worked really well before, and I kept telling myself it was “consistency.” In reality, it was just comfort. Performance didn’t drop overnight, which made it even harder to notice that I’d stopped learning anything new.
I think that "default mode" creeps in when things feel busy. Switching up structure in my cohort launches always feels risky but usually sparks something worth keeping Dorie .
RISE Learning Solutions•335K followers
18hA lot of people think they’re being strategic, but they’re actually just repeating what worked once. What I’ve noticed is the trap isn’t just predictability, it’s comfort. When something works, you stop questioning it. And that’s exactly when it starts losing edge. I like the 80/20 idea a lot. I’d even add: sometimes the biggest growth comes from testing direction, not just format. Not just “how do I say this differently?” But “should I be saying something completely different now?” That’s usually where things start compounding again :)