You can believe in anything… a bit
I recently spotted this from when i interviewed Alex Smith (before he was internet famous!):
"I’m very credulous in general. If there isn’t any cost to it, I’m prepared to basically believe in anything a bit, because I think of the potential upsides. So let’s take something like astrology. I’m not into astrology, but if anything has gained traction, it has done it for a reason."
I don't know if he still believes this (heyo). I never forgot it. It opened my mind to things which may not always make sense.
This is important for strategists. We start a process looking for a story. We come jam-packed with assumptions. But, at its best, the process encourages us to believe anything, for a bit. Our ego hates this. But the end product benefits.
Here's the thing: people may be irrational, but they're not illogical. The logic may be flawed, but it's there. If you read about mining towns in the UK, you can understand Brexit. If you know someone's upbringing, you can understand their neuroses. If you know an organisational culture, you can understand how its work got made (or where it went wrong).
You don't have to agree with it. But at least understand. As Mark Hadfield says, it's lived reality. And our job is to understand reality. Whether we agree with it, professionally speaking, is besides the point.
Want more like this? You should subscribe to Salmon Theory, the weekly newsletter that helps 6k+ savvy strategists swim upstream.
