1°) Who is the author?
Frank Herbert is an American science fiction writer, mainly known for Dune, a saga that combines politics, ecology, philosophy and power struggles.
2°) Context of the quote
In Chapterhouse: Dune, the sixth volume of the saga, Herbert writes:
“Show me a completely smooth process and I’ll show you someone who’s covering mistakes. Real boats rock.”
This quote refers to the Bene Gesserit, a secret order that embodies the search for an extremely controlled and optimized process. It operates on millennia-old plans, orchestrating and influencing galactic politics with great precision. Every action is carefully considered, every decision is part of a long-term logic, and every individual trained in the order becomes a machine of efficiency and manipulation.
But it is precisely this excessive control that makes them vulnerable. They believe they can predict and shape the future, but reality always catches up with them in the end.
3°) Significance
This reminds us that in any living system, which is dynamic and constantly evolving, the absence of friction is suspicious. A totally fluid process is therefore a sign that errors are being concealed, rather than resolved. Hence the analogy: a boat that is not pitching is probably stationary, or someone is deflecting the current.
The idea, therefore, is that the illusion of control and process perfection is a dangerous illusion. In a complex and constantly changing environment, one must expect errors, adjustments and tensions. It is their management, not their suppression or artificial concealment, that determines resilience and performance.
4°) What lessons can we learn from this?
It is a quote that could not be more relevant in our “VUCA” world where there is no shelter from the outside world.
I also remember the words of a friend who invests in start-ups: “When I ask the managers of ‘my’ start-ups if everything is going well and they tell me that everything is calm, I tell myself that they are not doing their job properly and that they are not taking the company in the right direction. It shouldn’t be normal, it’s the turbulence that should be”.
When your KPIs tell you that everything is going well, especially in this kind of business, there is a good chance that problems are being swept under the carpet. In a business, it is better to see the drifts, because there will always be some, so that you can react rather than arranging the indicators to give the illusion that everything is going well.
One can also say that hyper-optimization kills learning. An overly rigid process can mask weak signals that are essential for continuous improvement. Putting overly perfect processes on an organization can miss opportunities to learn (Improving a team’ s work: a story of continuous improvement) or even lead to the implementation of solutions that have worked elsewhere but are not relevant in this specific case.
The “real boats are pitching and rolling”, and that’s healthy. Businesses are sailing on an ocean of uncertainty, even if some are still burying their heads in the sand and considering instability and change as exceptions to the norm(Change and transformation need a new approach). Preferring to sail in completely calm waters is to condemn oneself to immobility. On the contrary, accepting turbulence and knowing how to take advantage of it by stepping out of one’s comfort zone allows one to move faster and better than the competition.
This is also not neutral in terms of employee experience and corporate culture. Management that tries to create artificial harmony can prevent real problems from emerging and being discussed. A good leader does not seek to avoid conflict but to turn it into a tool for improvement.
When it comes to innovation or responding to the unpredictable events that we experience, we must also accept that we can make mistakes (VUCA yourself!). When faced with something new, something we have never faced before, we must accept the logic of iteration and trial and error instead of looking only to where we have certainties drawn from past circumstances that have nothing to do with the present.
Finally, in terms of operational excellence, a good management system should not aim to avoid errors at all costs, but to make them visible so that they can be dealt with effectively. The best businesses do not seek to mask instability, but to transform it into a driver of continuous improvement. A manager or director who understands this is capable of creating an adaptive system rather than an illusion of absolute control (How to love control and not be a burden to yourself and your teams?).
Bottom line
Perfection is often a dangerous illusion. Rather than fluid processes, it is better to accept the chaos inherent in our world and in human imperfection, and learn the necessary lessons from it.
Only those who know how to navigate rough seas can hope to make it through.
Image: sailboat in storm by Vadi Fuoco via Shutterstock.
