Mohammed bin Tughlaq was one of the most intelligent rulers of 14th century India. He spoke five languages, understood philosophy, mathematics and medicine, and had genuinely good ideas for his empire. He also managed to move his entire capital 600 miles from Delhi to Daulatabad, ordered token currency during a silver shortage that people immediately started forging, and raised taxes on farmers during a famine. Thousands died. The empire collapsed. In popular memory, his name became a word. A Tughlaki Farmaan - an order issued from above with no understanding of the ground it will land on.
I issued one last quarter at my company.
A key customer urgently needed a product. I knew what was at stake commercially, and I gave the plant precise, point-blank instructions on exactly how it was to be done, without any conversation with the shop floor. I had the what and the why fully figured out in my head and transmitted the decision downward with great efficiency. The product was delivered on time. I felt good about it for approximately two days, which is when I found out that five other important orders had been delayed in the process. The plant team had the context that I did not - which machines were occupied, which orders were at critical stages, which sequence made sense on the floor that day. I had given them a solution to execute without asking them.
Lord Krishna could have run the Kurukshetra war from a tent. Instead, he chose to be Arjuna’s charioteer - present on the battlefield, watching the war evolve in real time. When Karna’s chariot wheel got stuck, he stepped down to free it. Krishna immediately told Arjuna to shoot. Karna protested as it was against the rules of war. Krishna’s answer was grounded in seventeen days of watching everything unfold on the ground - the rules had already been broken, repeatedly, by the other side. Only someone present for all of it could have made that call.
The Bhagavad Gita teaches decision-making as an act requiring two things: clarity of concept and clarity of context. One without the other is intelligence without wisdom. Most leaders have the concept. The context is what requires you to leave the conference room.
Before your next urgent decision, spend two minutes asking the person closest to the ground what they are seeing. The answer will either confirm your direction or save you from a Tughlaki Farmaan of your own.