On Schedule vs On Track: The Most Important Question You'll Ask All Year

In meeting rooms across Australia, corporate teams are returning to work rested and ready.

But given that every person, every competitor has access to AI in 2026, here is the big question: How did you use AI as part of your strategy development and why is it different from others?

How much effort went into using AI to stress test the premise for achieving your goals? The answers can come thick and fast but how deep were your questions?

On schedule is not the same as on track

At this early stage of the year things seem “on schedule”. But being on schedule means activity is happening. Being on track means the activity is taking you where you need to go.

Those two things sound very similar but as the year progresses, that can result in a vastly different outcome.

Think of it like you are sitting in a jet about to take off from Sydney Airport, headed for New York. If the course is off by a degree or two, you could end up in London.

What has AI got to do with this?

AI makes the gap between on schedule and on track harder to recognise.

Not because AI is the problem. Because AI is a mirror. It reflects the quality of your thinking back to you, at speed.

If your goal is vague, AI will still produce an answer. If your assumptions are hidden, AI will build on them without question. If your language is unclear, AI will make it sound clear.

But it is often just motion, polished.

AI doesn't decide whether you're on track. It helps you move faster in the direction you've pointed it. Which means the real work shifts upstream.

The questions that keep you on track

The most effective leaders I see and work with are not the ones who rush to rewrite the plan the moment friction appears. They treat friction as information. They pause long enough to ask:

•What are we assuming is true?
•What are we optimising for without saying it out loud?
•Where are we confusing speed with clarity?
•What must remain human here, because trust depends on it?

These questions don't slow progress. They prevent you from ending up in London rather than New York.

“Because being on schedule is easy to measure. Being on track requires attention. And in a world where answers are abundant, attention, judgment, and curiosity become your real advantage.”

Where in your work right now are you on schedule? Can you also say with certainty, that you are heading in the right direction?