Discovery vs Delivery

Biological Parallel

Ants separate exploration (scout ants sampling new territory) from exploitation (worker ants following established pheromone trails to known food). Scouts move randomly and slowly, testing options; workers move efficiently along proven paths. The colony balances these modes—too much exploration wastes energy on uncertain payoffs, too much exploitation misses better opportunities when food sources deplete. Discovery versus delivery mirrors this: teams need dedicated exploration time (testing assumptions, learning) separate from execution mode (building validated solutions), with conscious transitions between phases rather than conflating fundamentally different activities.