Strategy is About What You Don’t Do

Strategists are storytellers. Their greatest power is in connecting the dots others can’t see, and persuading people to rally behind an idea.

Strategy is just as much about what you don’t say and do as what you do, you need to be able to cut through the noise and keep your story succinct.

It’s about taking in the endless options, data and facts that surround a project and picking one clear path forward. Not ten.

This is why strategists need to be good at making decisions and communicating with absolute clarity. Finding the thread that weaves all the research nuggets together, and then kill the darlings.

This is why it’s important to get rid of any messaging that might muddy the idea. To make the presentation, deck or whatever form your story takes more interesting, you can use quotes, images or large stats. But never over explain the idea itself.