To name is to govern
Image: David Lupton
“For magic consists in this, the true naming of a thing.” With these words the ‘Master Namer’ Kurremkarmerruk introduces the Old Speech to his new pupils. Amongst them is Ged, the hero of Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea, and he is learning that in the island realm of Earthsea knowing a thing’s name in the old language is a source of magic and power. It’s what gives a wizard the ability to command, control, and even change it. All other names in other languages are just camouflage. And thus Ged goes on to save the island of Pendor from the ravages of a fearsome dragon, by speaking its true name. Yevaud.
Lest we be tempted, we should not let any snobbery about genre cloud the seriousness of the author’s intent. This isn’t mere potboiler fantasy, and Le Guin never showed up just to muck around. “For magic consists in this, the true naming of a thing.” Le Guin puts her finger here on something of deep and universal significance. To name something is summon it into existence. It renders it concrete. It gives it identity, shape, meaning, significance, and value. It establishes its place in relation to other things. And when we can name a thing we can exercise control over that thing. To name a thing allows us to place a value on it. To locate it in relation to other things. And to share and communicate that with other people. For better or for worse, I hasten to add.
That which cannot be named cannot be managed. And that which cannot be named cannot persuade and enroll the commitment, belief, and resources of others. As Wittgenstein wrote (yes, I know I’m straying into Pseuds Corner territory) in his philosophical work, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, "the limits of my language mean the limits of my world".
This much then, should be clear - the first source of modern human power is violence (or the threat of it), but the second most potent source of power is language. Deeply engaged in the nature of and uses of language, Le Guin published what she maintained was not a translation but “a rendition” of the ancient Chinese text known as the Tao Te Ching or The Way and Its Power. Amongst its many wisdoms we find these words:
To order, to govern,
is to begin naming;
when names proliferate
it’s time to stop.
If you know when to stop
you’re in no danger
Le Guin highlights the significance and lesson of this passage saying: “You have to make order, you have to make distinctions, but you also have to know when to stop before you’ve lost the whole in the multiplicity of parts.” In other words, the naming of things is an exercise in choice, precision, and economy. And its power and magic is lost when there is too much language.
The author and business consultant Richard Rumelt has taken much of strategy to task for being nothing but ‘fluff’: “Fluff is the superficial restatement of the obvious combined with a generous sprinkling of buzzwords. Fluff masquerades as expertise, thought, and analysis”. He’s got a point. Pivot, leverage, Millennials, GenZ, GenAlpha, AI, AI, AI, AI, AI, AI, AI, AI, community, fandom, own-able, data, science, insight, salience, fame, memory structures, digital, traditional, equity, mental availability, distinctive assets, essence, purpose, sustainability, creativity, idea, platform, consumers, prosumers… And don’t get me started on so-called positioning statements that read like pretentious artwork labels.
“When names proliferate it’s time to stop”, warns the Tao.
The practical wisdom of the Tao and of Le Guin is instructive for practitioners, commissioners, and end-users of strategy. When we are able to truly and accurately name things we are able exercise some form of control and dominion over them. And when we are able to name things we have the ability to share and embed that ordering and meaning of things in the minds of others. And thus we govern, predict cause and effect, make things happen. Thus we do strategy.
Commanders in the UK’s Royal Marines understand better than many the power of accurately naming things. They typically articulate their desired effects through simple words like “secure,” “protect,” “find,” “inform,” “pursue”… all drawn from a shared lexicon so all Marines will know exactly what is meant and what they are being required to do.
Some might worry that simple words means dumbing things down and losing nuance, meaning, or emotional heft. Ernest Hemingway knew that this was, to use a simple word, bullshit. In an interview with The New Yorker he said: “I use the oldest words in the English language. People think I’m an ignorant bastard who doesn’t know the ten-dollar words. I know the ten-dollar words. There are older and better words which if you arrange them in the proper combination you make it stick.”
One can do a lot just with two dollar words, arranged in the proper combination. Consider the provocation and emotional freight evoked by Ray Bradbury in his Fahrenheit 451: “There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house." Or how with the opening sentence of Cathedral, Raymond Carver drops us right into the central conflict of the story: “This blind man, an old friend of my wife’s, he was on his way to spend the night.” Not a ten-dollar word in sight.
The practice of strategy is an exercise in power. It’s the art of getting your own way, of exercising agency, of shaping minds, events and environments in one’s favour, of landing up with desired futures rather than somebody else’s vision of what the future should be.
In the world of marketing and communications, strategy’s ability to move the balance of power in its favour cannot afford to be undermined or limited by vagueness, jargon, empty words, careless language, imprecision, or generic marketing slop. There’s nothing like a career spent building brands with multi-market, multi-culture, multi-language, multi-function client teams to drill that hard lesson into one’s skull.
So if we want to find a better standard and better guidance, we could do worse than borrow and rework the words of Le Guin’s character thus - “For strategy consists in this, the true naming of a thing.”
Need strategy with the words that will unlock your superpower?
Let’s talk.
In two dollar words.