“Interesting, our conversation switched from tangible decisions to an analogy about cookies,” I observed.

“Not just cookies, warm cookies,” Ellen corrected me. “It’s easy to plan for a project that will be completed in two weeks. We know who the suppliers are, what materials we need to purchase, what contractors have to be involved. But, when things move further into the future, it gets murky. I can pretty much tell you what our revenues will be in 2011, but the real question, is what decisions have to be made this year to position us for 2013-2014?”

“You’re right,” I agreed. “Something changes about the discussion when we look that far out. In the near term, we can identify, with some accuracy, what is most likely to happen. It is a very concrete discussion. But, the further we go into the future, those tangible items get fuzzy. More than fuzzy. Those concrete elements turn into conceptual elements. And it is a completely different conversation.”