You've heard it a million times. Maybe you've even said it while sweating through a silk shirt in a boardroom. We'll figure it out. It sounds like a cop-out, doesn't it? Like someone who forgot to do their homework and is now trying to wing a presentation on quarterly fiscal projections. Honestly, in most corporate circles, admitting you don't have a plan is seen as a weakness. We are obsessed with "roadmaps" and "five-year projections." But here’s the thing: most of those plans are just expensive guesses.
The world moves too fast for rigid blueprints.
When you say we'll figure it out, you aren't admitting defeat. You’re actually embracing a concept known as "Effectuation." This is a term coined by Dr. Saras Sarasvathy, a professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. She studied successful entrepreneurs and found that they don't start with a perfect goal and then seek the means to reach it. Instead, they look at the tools they have and say, "Okay, what can I do with this?" They operate on the fly.
The Psychology of High-Stakes Improvisation
Logic tells us to prepare. Instinct tells us to panic when the preparation fails.
Most people think of "figuring it out" as a desperate scramble. It’s not. It is a psychological state of high-level cognitive flexibility. Think about NASA during the Apollo 13 mission. When that oxygen tank exploded, there was no manual for "How to fix a spacecraft with duct tape and cardboard while freezing to death." They didn't have a plan. They had a philosophy. They looked at the pile of junk on the table and decided they were going to make it work.
That is the purest form of the we'll figure it out mindset.
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It requires a massive amount of trust. Not just trust in your own skills, but trust in your team. You have to believe that the collective intelligence of the room is greater than the sum of its parts. If you’re a micro-manager, this phrase will taste like ash in your mouth. You can't control the outcome; you can only control the intensity of the effort.
It’s about "affordable loss." This is another Sarasvathy concept. Instead of asking "How much can I make?", successful "figure-it-out" types ask, "What is the maximum I can afford to lose if this goes sideways?" Once you define that floor, the fear of the unknown evaporates. You become dangerous. You become fast.
Why the "Plan Beats No Plan" Argument is Half-Wrong
We are taught that a bad plan is better than no plan. That’s a lie. A bad plan gives you a false sense of security that leads you off a cliff.
Look at the startup world. In the early 2010s, the "Pivot" became a buzzword because companies like Slack (which started as a gaming company called Glitch) realized their original plan was trash. They didn't survive because they followed a roadmap. They survived because, when the game failed, the leadership looked at their internal chat tool and said, we'll figure it out using this instead.
If they had stuck to the plan, Slack wouldn't exist. You’d be using some clunky legacy software.
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- Plans are static.
- Execution is fluid.
- We'll figure it out is the bridge between the two.
It’s kinda like jazz. A jazz musician knows the key and the tempo, but the actual notes? Those happen in response to the drummer’s kick or the bassist’s slide. In business, the market is your drummer. If you aren't listening and reacting, you're just playing a solo in an empty room.
Developing the "Figure It Out" Muscle
You can't just wake up and be comfortable with chaos. It’s a muscle. You have to tear the fibers a little bit.
Start small. Stop over-scheduling your weekends. Go to a city you’ve never been to without a Yelp reservation. See what happens. In a professional setting, this looks like "Rapid Prototyping." Instead of spending six months on a white paper, spend six hours on a "Minimum Viable Product." Put it in front of a customer. When it breaks—and it will—look them in the eye and tell them you’re working on it.
The Danger of the Empty Promise
Now, we have to be real here. There is a dark side.
If you say we'll figure it out but you don't actually have the technical competence to back it up, you’re just a con artist. There’s a fine line between "visionary improvisation" and "incompetent guessing." The difference is the "First Principles" approach popularized by people like Elon Musk or Charlie Munger.
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First principles thinking means you break a problem down to its most basic, undeniable truths. If you’re trying to build a cheaper rocket, you don't look at what Boeing is doing. You look at the cost of aluminum, titanium, and fuel on the raw commodities market. If the physics work, the rest is just a logistical puzzle. You can say "we'll figure it out" because the laws of the universe are on your side.
If you’re saying it because you’re lazy? You’re cooked.
Resilience as a Competitive Advantage
In a 2026 economy—where AI is doing the "planning" and the "optimizing"—the only thing left for humans is the messy, non-linear problem-solving. AI is great at the "known knowns." It’s even okay at the "known unknowns." But it’s terrible at the "unknown unknowns."
That’s where you come in.
The ability to stand in the middle of a storm and stay calm is a rare commodity. Most people crumble when the spreadsheet doesn't balance. If you can be the person who says "This is a mess, but we'll figure it out," you become the most valuable person in the room. People crave certainty, but since the world can't give it to them, they’ll settle for someone who isn't afraid of the uncertainty.
It’s about grit. Angela Duckworth’s research on grit shows that persistence and passion for long-term goals are better predictors of success than IQ. And what is grit if not the internal monologue of "I don't know how yet, but I'm not stopping"?
Actionable Steps for the Uncertain Leader
Stop looking for the "right" answer. There isn't one. There are only choices and consequences.
- Audit your "Safety Nets": Identify exactly what happens if your current project fails. If you won't go bankrupt and nobody dies, your fear is probably just ego. Shed it.
- Shorten the Feedback Loop: Don't wait for monthly meetings. If you're "figuring it out," you need data every 24 hours. Check-in, adjust, move.
- Change the Vocabulary: Instead of saying "I don't know," say "We'll figure it out." It shifts the energy from a dead-end to a doorway.
- Hire for "General Intelligence" Over "Specific Skillsets": If you hire someone who only knows how to use one specific software, they are useless when that software changes. Hire the person who taught themselves three different languages just for fun. They are the ones who will help you figure it out.
The next time a client asks a question you aren't prepared for, or a global supply chain crisis hits your bottom line, don't freeze. Take a breath. Look at the resources you have—your people, your cash, your time.
Everything is a figure-out-able problem.
Success isn't about having the map; it's about being the kind of person who can navigate by the stars when the map blows overboard.
Final Practical Insight
Realize that "figuring it out" is an iterative process. You will fail at version 1.0. You might even fail at version 2.0. The goal is to fail "forward"—to learn enough from the mistake that version 3.0 actually works. This isn't just a catchy phrase; it's the fundamental operating system of every successful venture in human history.
Stop over-planning. Start doing.
Next Steps for Your Business:
- Identify one "deadlocked" project where you've been waiting for a perfect plan.
- Set a 48-hour deadline to produce a "rough and dirty" solution.
- Launch it to a small test group immediately to see where it breaks.
- Use that breakage as your new roadmap.