creative strategy

New words enter language very slowly. If there is a technical invention such as a ‘computer’ then the word for that device can enter quite easily. If, however, there is a need for a new word for some behaviour, some concept or some state of mind, then introducing a new word is difficult. My use of the term lateral thinking was introduced in 1967 and is now very widely found and is also in most dictionaries. One of the reasons for this acceptance is that the phenomenon is easy to recognise. Another reason is that a used adjective was attached to a used noun. This is always much easier than a really new word.

As I have mentioned before, there are new words that are badly needed. One of them is a word to describe ‘A fully justified venture which for reasons beyond your control did not succeed’. The reasons may include information you could not have had, etc.

The failure of the project is seen as a ‘failure’ or a ‘mistake’. As a result people are unwilling to take risks.

If there was such a word then risks would be easier to take. Such expressions as ‘nice try’ are too patronising. One day we may have such a word. At this point, however, I want to introduce a completely different word.

DETTLE

This new word is pronounced and used very much like settle. It is a verb: ‘to dettle’. A ‘dettler’ is someone who dettles a great deal. To dettle means to be obsessed with ‘detail’.

There is the expression, ‘You cannot see the wood for the trees’. This means that as you concentrate on the individual trees, you cannot get the big picture of the wood as such.

There is fine intelligence in India, but quite often one gets the impressions that ‘you cannot see the tree for the leaves’. The focus is on fine detail, so the larger picture is lost. This precise state of mind may be excellent for software but can be a limitation elsewhere.

There is, of course, the other side of the picture. With contracts it is often said that the ‘devil is in the details’. There are people who are indeed good at the broader picture, but are not good at working out the details.

‘I would like you to do some dettling here’. ‘Let’s dettle this’. ‘More dettle please’.

Where the word ‘detail’ can be used, this would be preferable. But ‘detail’ as a verb means something different: it means to give instructions or to send a group to do something.

‘Dettle’ is a very general verb that defines focusing upon and working with details. The term ‘dettler’ may be used in both a positive sense and also a negative sense.

‘We should give it to him - he’s a very good dettler’. ‘He’s just a dettler - he won’t see the big picture’.

The context will indicate whether the use is negative or positive.

MEANING

The central meaning of ‘dettle’ is as follows:

• to work out the details

• to focus on the details

• to be obsessed with details

• to be concerned with details

The different shades of meaning are provided by additional words or context:

• ‘He is just a dettler’ (as above).

• ‘Give it to him. He is a great dettler’ (as above).

• ‘We need some good dettling here’.

• ‘More and more dettling will not change the strategy’.

BALANCE

Strategy without detail is ineffective. The strategy cannot be implemented no matter how wonderful. Detail without strategy is aimless.

More and more detail does not add up to strategy. It is not unlike the wheels and engine of a car. Without wheels the engine is useless. Without an engine the car can only go downhill.

Setting strategy may be a grander occupation but working out the details is also important. On the other hand close attention to detail does not set or alter a strategy.

The new word ‘dettle’ deals with attention to detail. ‘Dettle this’ means work out all the relevant details.

VALUFACTURE

Thought is all about value. Business is all about value. Politics should be all about value. Value is very central to human behaviour. I invented the word ‘valufacture’ many years ago in one of my books (Surpetition). The word describes the deliberate creation of value. It is more than ‘adding value’. It is setting out to design and to deliver value.

Whenever a product or service is designed there is always a sense of need and value. An insurance policy is based on the value of protecting assets. An ice-cream is based on the value of offering something that is agreeable to eat. So in a sense we are ‘valufacturing’ all the time. There is no need to use the word on such occasions.

The word can be used when there is a conscious and deliberate effort to design new or added value. People go on holiday. How might we valufacture the holiday? There might be ways in which people, especially singles, can meet other people. It might be a matter of adding some education aspects or even cooking classes in local cuisines.

It may be a matter of advancing loans for the holiday. It may even be a matter of designing a ‘very boring holiday’ so that a week-end break seems like a month!

We usually set out to design things, like a motor car, and then the values will flow naturally from that ‘thing’. Valufacture implies that we start with the value and then create a way of delivering that value. For example, in designing a mortgage we might start with the value of allowing people to pay different amount sat different times according to their cash flow.

The reverse mortgage is a good example of valufacture. An old person living in a nice house needs cash flow. So the person is offered an annuity but when the person dies the house goes to the body offering the annuity. This suits the needs and values of the older person - even if the heirs are not so happy about it (they could offer the annuity).

THE VALUE OF NEW WORDS

New words are themselves an example of valufacture. There is the convenience of describing something more simply and more directly. ‘Dettle’ is a good example of this.

The new word allows us to focus on some concept or behaviour. The fact that we could ‘describe’ that concept or behaviour in ordinary language does not mean that we can focus on it.

A new word creates a new concept that becomes part of our thinking behaviour. The new word comes to have a location in the brain. A description is like an itinerary put together by the travel agent. It only exists while we are using it.

A new word is like a town. It has permanence.