a simple story might be smarter

In Good Strategy, Bad Strategy Richard Rumelt recommends that a leader “replace the overwhelming complexity of reality with a simpler story, a story that calls attention to its crucial aspects.”

Grad student me saw complexity as a virtuous signal - someone who could name all the nuances was smart. All things considered, a smart strategy beats the other strategies, I thought. And then, dangerously, I hugged a false equivalency real tight: a complex strategy (or a strategy that sounds complex, at least) beats other strategies. (Because complex probably means smart, right?)

Many painful losses and dead ends later, I see more wisdom in Rumelt’s take. Strategy can be seen as focus; it can be seen as a massing of resources; it can be seen as leverage. Seeing every pixel in the screen at the same time, the thousands of constituent complexities, is of no use if you can’t name the picture they form and act on what you see. 

If your strategy is hard to explain to someone without a graduate degree in your narrow discipline, you might have a bad strategy. 

-Eric