Last Updated on 1 August 2013

We are all in a hurry with our businesses.

We all want results immediately.

Because of this, we often act immediately without taking the time to think-up alternate ideas or think thru the implications of what are about to do. Something is better than nothing, right? This is thinking tactically, not strategically. We confuse activity with productivity. There’s a difference.

I’m ripping off yet another Seth Godin post to reinforce this idea. He says it brilliantly.

Stoogecraft

You probably have better things to do than to analyze the basic trait of the Three Stooges, so I will do it for you.

They have impulse control problems.

It’s not that they are evil or even particularly selfish. No, the challenge all three Stooges face is that they do whatever comes into their minds, immediately. If they want to lash out or poke or twist, they do. If they think it might be effective to make money running a plumbing company, they don’t consider, they merely do it.

Stoogecraft is what happens when people or organizations in power do what feels right in the short run without thinking at all about the alternatives or the implications. It’s the result of fear or boredom or a misplaced focus.

Every customer service horror story is an example of stoogecraft at work. Every business development deal gone awry because of personalities, greed or miscommunication is a result of the same thing. When we don’t say what needs to be said, postponing it for later, we’re playing the Stooge game.

Humans being human. People who can do what they want doing what they (think) they want.

Short-term thinking used to mean a rake to a face. Now it leads to dead ends, broken promises and success avoided.

Thanks, Seth!

Three Stooges &copy C3 Entertainment Inc.