Mister Three Sixty

Let me get to the point: Too many people confuse complexity with cleverness.

I know the world is a complex place, with more information, more opinions, more fascinating facets and back alleys to explore every day. I also know that people can be complicated. We like complexity in our friends because it makes them richly interesting and in our brands because it makes them more lovable.

But this does not mean that complicated, involved, wordy thinking equates with smartness. I see far too much strategic thinking wearing complexity as if it were a virtue. You always know this stuff when you see it; for a start it is long, layer upon layer of considerations and sub-divisions, varieties of variables and modifications. The only limitations on the thinking being how much PowerPoint a Human can absorb. I think it stems from an assumption that nothing short of total and complete comprehension will allow for the development of powerful strategy.

There is chaotic complexity all around us and our understanding of it can never be more than partial.   The job of the strategist is to try and make sense of it. Sure it means digging deep into the root causes of things, it means looking at problems from multiple angles as you seek to find the answer. But please don’t feel the need to share your complex, interlocking analysis with the rest of us. In fact “don’t show me the workings, tell me the answer”. That’s what strategic thinking is all about. Our role as strategists is to be a brilliant persuasive guide, not a Human encyclopaedia.

A wise old Ad planner used to say he could spot the smart ones from the also-rans with a simple test. He gave them an inch-thick bundle of papers to read and report on. If they came back a week later with two inches of papers, they were on their way out. He wanted one side of A4. Napoleon (not a Planner but certainly old) said “All Strategy is sacrifice”. You either charge down the hill, or you stay and wait for them to come to you. Either way you must choose one course of action and reject the others.

It is true that there is danger in oversimplification (it means we miss out important factors, like, er… actually there are no WMDs). I know that too much Advertising and Branding strategy is unhealthily and unrealistically reductive. But if you want to be strategic, the solution is straightforward Keep. It. Simple. Stupid.