When someone's coming after you, what do you do? In business and politics, the defaults are to run or rationalize. Influence strategies like the Pass, Pause, Deflect, Red Herring and Recast are the go-to plays for people and organizations who'd rather not face the music or who simply lack the mastery or buy-in to confront and fight it.
But savvy leaders are wising up. Finally, there's recognition that the better route is to get in the game and play. Consider two recent examples:
When The New York Times exposed massive dissent and low morale at Amazon, CEO Jeff Bezos didn't hesitate to hip-check the reporting with his own account. In a letter, delivered hours after the story broke, Bezos re-spun the news: "I strongly believe that anyone working in a company that really is like the one described in the NYT would be crazy to stay. I know I would leave such a company." Bezos was reacting to a delivered attack, and most agree that it's good he did.
Bernie Sanders, the rising challenger for the Democratic presidential nomination, can be credited with the same instinct to nip a problem in the bud. His speech at the iconic christian college Liberty University was even more remarkable than Bezos' rebuttal because Sanders has yet to be attacked in any substantive way by the christian right. And, yet, there was Bernie, holding forth with young pro-life-traditional-marriage conservatives: Said the socialist-democrat senator: "I came here today because I believe from the bottom of my heart that it is vitally important for those of us who hold different views to be able to engage in a civil discourse."
From The Standard Table of Influence, the principle play that Bezos and Bernie ran is a Crazy Ivan, a strategy of preemption that rushes a rival, a deliberate acceleration by a threatened player of an impending attack or problem. Along with the Bear Hug, Disco and Lantern, it's part of a small subset of strategies that are counter-intuitive because each seeks the heat of a rival and attempts to co-opt its energy.
In the industries of influence -- from advertising to sales, marketing, PR, politics and even counter intelligence -- we are coming to understand that the time-honored model of mitigation is a prescription for failure and that reasoned and public prosecution is the better route. Tamping down facts and evading social barbs does no good. Telling your story quickly and without apology is the play to run today. Just ask Bezos and Bernie.
Graphic credit: Playmaker Systems, LLC and Jeff Bezos and Bernie Sanders Facebook pages