Strategy is a monstrous act

A friend once told me a strategist's superpower is knowing how to write. I believe him. One of my favourite sources of inspiration these days? Writing advice like this:

“Writing is a monstrous act because it implies a metamorphosis. Writing, to me, is an attempt at becoming someone else. Every novel is a long way of tracing an x, of crossing myself out. I don’t want to be on the page. I want someone else to be there—someone else to “happen’.” Hernan Diaz

I love how visceral this is. And though it’s about fiction, it raises a powerful question for non-fiction. We write to change the meaning of words. When's the last time words changed you?

Strategy's endgame is to spark movement. But as an intermediary measure, feeling moved by the process is an indicator you're doing it right. Because if you're doing it right, you do embody new messages, audiences, a new tone.

By doing so, things get raw. Raw precedes real. And real is something that provokes a response. In you, colleagues, and customers. Small things you do can spark big things in others.

It’s a funny dynamic. You do want to find your voice doing this job, but only so far as it lets you channel other voices. You want to lead what's in the page, without showing yourself on the page. To channel the energy all your research has given you.

Short term, it may feel monstrous. Long term, it's meaningful. So bring out that Mr/Ms Hyde! There’s beauty in the ugly side of feeling yourself transform into someone else for a little bit.