Knute Rockne compiled four sophomore football players in the Notre Dame backfield who became football lore. The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame destroyed almost any defense they faced from 1922 to 1924, only losing twice to Nebraska.
This was the image that came to me while reading Richard P Rumelt’s Good Strategy/Bad Strategy and his four major aspects of bad strategy. Rumelt writes that you can detect bad strategy out of four hallmarks: “fluff, failure to face the challenge, mistaking goals for strategy, and bad strategic objectives.”
In this first part of four, I will discuss “fluff.” “Fluff” uses $5.00 words with vague concepts. The industry that I have spent more than 25 years, the entertainment industry, thrives on such fluff. When leading strategic planning sessions in this industry, I explain that “creative people” are the best equipped to forge a new business strategy. However, I have to keep one foot in the crows nest for that verbose and esoteric creative person who can lead the session into non-existing waters. If you plan to lead a session, don’t be afraid to ask what a person means by the buzz words they use. It usually only takes two questions to uncover a person who is speaking just to be heard.
Fluff will spread like a plague if you let it get out of hand. Others will try to outshine the fluffer with their own fluff creating an epidemic of nonsense. A strategy session, and a strategy should always be as concise, and substantive. You can create a strategic plan that takes months or just hours. But, which every you choose, it must have a direction.