Why I teach my strategists that strategy is bull

It might come as a shock, but at The Mix Global, I run a training session for my strategists titled ‘Strategy is Bullsh*t’. This is not because I’ve tricked our new hires into taking a job that doesn’t recognise their skills, but, in actual fact, is because I want them – and need them – to be the greatest strategists they possibly can be. And this is the most effective way to get there.   

We start with a discussion about the good and bad things about being a strategist, then dive into the points that I want to get through to my strategists, unravelling what they think they know about strategy.   

Here are the key aims of my training, and what I ensure they take away from the session.  

Your job isn’t (that) important 

Strategists tend to believe that strategy is very big and very important. The reality is that, outside the agency and marketing world, most people don’t agree – or even think about strategists. My background is in strategy, and yet my mum still thinks I make ads for a living.

It’s a good reminder that there are many professions that do more important and necessary work than strategists: doctors, nurses, teachers, lorry drivers, checkout operators, the list goes on. Ultimately, making sure strategists understand this allows them to recognise that their belief in their own cleverness is not helpful. In fact, it clouds their judgement. 

Because, while we don’t save lives, it is possible for us to do things that help companies make fewer bad decisions, and often make some really good ones. For me, when David Ogilvy famously said “strategy is sacrifice”, this should also be taken to mean that you should be generous spirited and ready to concede you don’t always know best. 

Work hard at getting dirty 

The military has a decision-making model called the OODA loop, developed by military strategist John Boyd. OODA stands for the four stages needed to make strong decisions: Observation, Orientation, Decision-making, and Action, and the process is easily applicable to business. The problem is that most companies spend too much time navel-gazing – “observing” – and don’t make decisions quickly enough.  

For strategists, on the other hand, the opposite is often true.  

Strategy that is overly reliant on secondary source material, such as trend reports, will be generic. It’s why most advertising is banal and pointless: because no one’s doing the hard work of going to the source and finding out what is genuinely new and interesting. Why are people behaving in a certain way? What’s really going on with those people? Don’t just rely on an account of it from someone else: go and find out yourself. 

Make no mistake, it’s the harder route – but unless you’re doing it, someone else will and they will be the award-winning strategist, and you will not. 

Cut the jargon 

Strategists often believe that using complex words or sector-specific jargon creates a sense of importance, making them sound knowledgeable. However, words that are confusing exclude people from the conversation and reduce the chance of your work having an impact. 

I advise strategists to make a list of words that are complex, or phrases that don’t have much meaning, and tell them not to use them. Even if others are, you should always aim for maximum ease of understanding. 

If a short word explains just as well as a long word, always use the short word. 

Chase after feedback 

Strategists can often feel that their role is to think up something brilliant and then unveil it to the world as a perfectly formed thought.  

Yet, in reality, that is rarely how useful strategy gets made, and that’s the kind of thinking I want to cut out. For me, strategy is all in the edit. That comes from saying my idea out loud and letting the people around me find the weak spots, the places that are unclear, the things that don’t quite add up. 

The first draft is hardly ever more than a kernel of good thought that is wrapped up in a whole load of froth and waffle. In editing, you carve out something that is altogether simpler and more beautiful. This cannot be done in a dark room – you must seek feedback. 

Why is all of this important? 

Strategy is only good if it gets used. Most will be tossed onto a server and never seen again – we have to fight for utility and help businesses make better decisions. By teaching my strategists that strategy is bullsh*t, it allows them to create genuinely useful strategies for businesses.

Tash Walker is founder of The Mix Global