Twitching Before You Sprint

Drawing on neuroscientist Mark Blumberg's research on sleeping rats whose twitches help the brain build a body map, this piece argues that organizations should adopt a similar 'twitch before you sprint' approach. Rather than committing fully to launches, reorgs, or strategies before understanding the system, companies should run small, low-stakes experiments first. This applies to product development (prototypes, feature flags, MVPs), organizational design (trial structures, time-boxed experiments), and strategy (small parallel bets instead of monolithic declarations). The core argument is that learning velocity — updating your mental model before full commitment — is a competitive advantage, and leaders who embrace uncertainty and disciplined exploration outperform those who mistake confidence for competence.