Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, China, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Devious Strategy, Honesty, Relationships, Relevance, Resonance, Respect, Strategy
I’ve been a huge fan of what I call ‘devious strategy’.
It’s the art of giving people what they want but in a way that delivers what is in your best interests.
I first recognised it in China when I saw how the Government dealt with issues they faced.
Rather than simply dictate rules – which are often almost impossible to enforce – they created systems that looked – and often were – generous, but were also self-serving.
Case in point, collecting taxes.
To ensure small business – especially restaurants – declared the full amount of their earnings, they created a scheme where customers were more likely to ask for a receipt. They chose this method because they knew to provide a receipt, the retailer had to put the bill through the till … and the moment that happened, revenue would be registered and they would know what was the right amount of tax to collect.
And how did they get customers to ask for a receipt?
By making it like a mini lottery card.
Basically receipts have a little part at the top you can scratch off and find out if you’ve won money. Because no one is going to say no to the chance of free cash, they increasingly ask for receipts and – voila – the government increases the amount of taxable revenue they get.
Genius.
There’s so many examples of the Chinese Government using psychology to solve problems in ingenious ways, but another example I love is from the actor Daniel Radcliffe.
I wrote about this a few years ago, but in short, Daniel was fed up his photo was being taken – and sold – by the paparazzi every night as he left the theatre where he was performing.
So to counter them, he were the same clothes every night as he left the venue.
After a few days, the paparazzi realised no one would buy their photos given he looked the same in every one and so – despite giving them what they wanted – Daniel got what he wanted, which was the paparazzi leaving him alone.
Brilliant.
It doesn’t take long to see a ton of other examples from this to this … but the reason for this post is because of what’s going on with Twitter.
Since Evil Elon took over, he has increasingly been making the platform a place of hate.
For all his claims of ‘free speech’, it’s obvious he only cares about what he thinks is right.
Which is why I recently used this slide in a talk I was giving to Elon fanboys.
It was worth it, if only to watch their faces try to work out what I was saying …
Which is why sometimes, the best strategy to take on challenges is not facing them head-on … nor finding ways to navigate around them … but becoming their best friend to mess with the natural order of things.