Parliament | Zigging Not Zagging
Good Strategy Is Unexpected (And That's the Point)
I'm halfway through Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt, and one line keeps surfacing:
"Good strategy is unexpected."
Not clever. Not trendy. Unexpected.
And in a world drowning in uncertainty, there is more pressure than ever to play it safe.
The Pocket Presence Principle
A few months back, I wrote about pocket presence—that ability to read a situation without seeing the full picture and trusting your team to make the right move. It's about building an organization where people understand the game well enough to play it without constant direction.
The same principle applies to strategy.
When you're building with pocket presence, your team doesn't need to see the whole playbook. They understand the intent deeply enough to execute with autonomy. That only works when your strategy is grounded in something real—something that can't be copied by reading everyone else's playbook.
Good strategy isn't what everyone else is doing. It's what they're not doing—because they don't see it yet, or they're too afraid to try.
The Uncertainty Paradox
Here's the challenge: we're living in unprecedented uncertainty. AI is rewriting the rules daily. Remote work killed the office but nobody told us what comes next. Economic headwinds keep shifting direction.
In times like these, the safe play feels like copying what's working for others. Follow the proven playbook. Stick with best practices.
But that's exactly when unexpected strategy matters most.
When everyone is zigging toward safety, that's your invitation to zag toward opportunity.
As my friend Hollis (founder of Baby Bathwater Institute) says: "Where can you zig where others zag?"
That's not recklessness. That's strategic courage.
Hoot's Unexpected Bets
Want to know what we're betting on? Here are three strategic choices we're making in 2026.
1. Taste Is the New Moat
Everyone's terrified AI will replace creative work. We see it differently.
We're betting: AI will commoditize production, which means taste becomes your only defensible moat.
Technology can execute your vision with terrifying efficiency, but it can't tell you what your vision should be. The gap between having access to tools and having taste is wider than ever—and that gap is where we're building.
We're no longer chasing production jobs. We're moving upstream. While others compete on deliverables and AI-optimized output, we're competing on discernment, on knowing what feels right before it's proven right.
2. In-Person Collaboration Just Became Your Competitive Edge
The world went remote. Many agencies are scattered across time zones, patching together Zoom calls and Slack threads.
We're betting: The digital world made in-person collaboration special. Rare. Valuable.
Try rumbling on creative ideas over zoom with laundry buzzing and notifications popping.
We’re betting on real eye contact, the exchange of energy, and nonverbal cues to take our work to the next level.
3. Attention Is the Most Valuable Resource You Can Access
This is why we built The Bird House—a 1,300-square-foot home with overnight accommodations where clients live and work with us for three days.
We're betting: Your client's undivided attention is worth more than any deliverable you could produce. When someone is physically present, phones down, fully engaged? Magic happens.
While others compete on Zoom, we're competing on presence.
Your Turn
So here's my challenge to you:
What would your strategy look like if you stopped following the crowd?
Not for the sake of being contrarian. For the sake of being strategic.
No one built a legacy brand by playing it safe.
Until next week,
Kristen
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