John Cutler · 6 min read · Product Strategy
TBM 433: The Border Collie Faustian Bargain
Read the original on cutlefish.substack.com →
The article analyzes a company annual kickoff where leadership presents a strategy that is incoherent and not really a strategy. It profiles personas—Believers, Players, Checked Out, Purists, and Confused Coherence Checkers—and shows how each group reacts to the gap between slides and reality. A simple 2x2 framework (See It vs See It, Tolerate It vs Cannot Tolerate It) helps map who can tolerate ambiguity and who calls it out.
Key Takeaways
- Leadership often presents an incoherent strategy as if it were a plan, triggering different reactions across stakeholders.
- Believers enjoy the appearance of a plan, while Players understand the true politics and keep the show running.
- Purists and Confused Coherence Checkers illustrate the risk of misalignment: uncertainty can breed blame and disengagement.
- The 2x2 framework helps diagnose organizational dynamics by showing who can see the gap and who tolerates it.
- Without aligning the narrative with real constraints and priorities, meetings become noise that teams must eventually resolve in practice.
Excerpt
(I have a question at the end, if you get there) Picture a company annual kickoff. Leaders are sharing a strategy that is objectively not a strategy. Not just by a purist’s standards, but assume for a moment that the experienced people in the room all know it isn’t a strategy. So we have: Believers The less experienced peopl e in the room who are happy that someone seems to have a plan. They’re not skilled enough to know what a strategy is. If it sounds somewhat coherent to them, they’ll be excited. Players The experienced people in the room…