Strategy Is a Verb: Notes from the Front Line

In Strategy Is a Verb, Martin Weigel argues that strategy is a discipline of action, judgement and consequence. The book is a collection of 58 short chapters, each named for a verb, from ‘Imagine’ and ‘Disobey’ to ‘Struggle’ and ‘Unlearn’.

Weigel spent nearly four decades in brand strategy, including fourteen years as Chief Strategy Officer at Wieden+Kennedy, working with brands from Coca-Cola to Spotify.

Strategy is a Verb explores, among other things:

• Why great strategy demands creativity and conviction
• How brands lose meaning when process replaces imagination
• What separates transformative thinking from incremental thinking
• Why ambition matters more than optimisation
• How to build brands and organisations people care about

The core idea is simple. Strategy is about creating change, and it only exists when it is put into action. Weigel borrows from the military thinker Colin S. Gray to describe its four moving parts: the end you want, the ways you will pursue it, the means you will use, and the assumptions about cause and effect that link them. It follows, he argues, that strategy and execution are two sides of the same coin, and that “everything is strategic”, from what you charge to how you handle complaints.

“Disobey” gives a good flavour of how Weigel works. It starts with “best practice”, a phrase where his objection is not that best practice is necessarily wrong, but that it so easily becomes “unchallenged orthodoxy”. It “turns tactics into templates”, and often amounts to “average practice, scaled efficiently”: what consultants recommend when they don’t know the specifics of your challenge. Elsewhere, he suggests replacing “What is the best practice?” with “What will work for us?”

Other chapters share the same spirit. “Interrogate” asks which hand-me-down assumptions we have stacked up without checking them, “Resist” argues that “if our strategy doesn’t have an enemy, then we do not have a strategy”, and “Wander” suggests it is all right to be lost, as long as we admit we are lost and let it teach us.

He also addresses the human side of getting things done. “Protect” warns of strategy drift and bloat, as stakeholders add their pet peeves to something that works only because it is focused. “Speak” makes the case for the dissenter, with the court jester as an unlikely role model and “Thank” sets out the evidence that a simple thank-you makes people more willing to help.

The writing is opinionated, often funny and occasionally salty. The illustrations range from Kate Bush and the Road Runner cartoons to the Royal Marines. Weigel says he wrote the book largely for himself, though he sees its relevance for the wider business community, and most of the thinking transfers readily to anyone trying to make change happen in an organisation.

In one of numerous reviews for the book Jim Carroll, long-serving strategist, former Chairman, BBH London notes: “Weigel invites strategists to reflect on strategy - what it means and how to do it well. Intelligently navigated, insightfully illustrated and elegantly articulated, this book will help you think, imagine and act more effectively.”

Verdict

A stimulating, thought-provoking read for leaders, managers and strategists who suspect that strategy has become more process than purpose. Weigel gives you no formula, but plenty to think about, and a persuasive reminder that if strategy isn’t making something happen, it isn’t strategy. We recommend Strategy Is a Verb to anyone who wants to think harder about how change really happens in organisations.