Presence

(The second in a series of posts on "Is your strategy a duck?". Starting post is here.)

Benedikt's first component of realism in architecture is that of "presence". There is something about the building that commands attention.

How does a strategy command attention? Liedtka makes clear that to grab attention a strategy must be interesting. How so? To be interesting a strategy must:

• Combine the familiar and the novel. Too familiar and we will ignore it as nothing new. Too novel and it will seem too way out to be credible.
• Be unified and simple. Avoiding needless complexity and jargon: and easily suggesting action.
• Be delivered by someone "we know and take seriously". Usually our line manager - which of course requires that our line manager is also engaged with this strategy. (This reminds me of Aristotle's ethos of the speaker - more on this another time).