Customers were responding positively, but in a completely different way to how we had anticipated. Our messaging, our creative - all of it was landing beautifully, just not in the way we’d planned (and this was despite extensive pre-testing).

Without that insight, we’d have continued confidently but unintentionally misattributing success and probably jeopardising future growth. 

It was a humbling, invaluable lesson: without clarity, confidence can be dangerous.

At the The Consultancy Growth Network 2025 Summit, Olympic Gold Medallist @Ben Hunt-Davis MBE shared a similar insight. His now-famous question — “Will it make the boat go faster?” — became the guiding principle for the British men’s rowing eight that won Gold in Sydney in 2000. Ben emphasised the crucial distinction between results and performance.

Most of us, whether in sport or business, fixate on results. But in doing so, we often overlook the factors that make those results possible — the small, consistent, interconnected actions that add up to performance.

When things go well, we assume we know why. When they don’t, we scramble to fix what’s “wrong.” In both cases, we’re often guessing and at risk of connecting the wrong dots. When the environment changes (and it always does), it’s impossible to steer effectively if we don’t know which levers actually move the boat.

In The Vibrant Company’s work with leadership teams, we see this pattern repeatedly. Success brings pride, as it should, but also blind spots. When performance begins to slip, the instinct is to double down on effort rather than reconnect with what’s true.