I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of people around me talking about ‘playbooks’…and this makes me uncomfortable.

This post is me thinking about why this might be.

What is a playbook?

Looking up the definition (Dictionary.com) we get three uses:

The original use (way back in the Elizabethan 1500s) is “the script of a play, used by the actors as an acting text”.

Then we get the sporting usage (ref. American football from 1940s): “a notebook containing descriptions of all the plays and strategies used by a team, often accompanied by diagrams, issued to players for them to study and memorise…”

And finally, we get the more general sense of it being a stock of usual tactics or methods – to solve a particular problem in a particular way.

What we can see from each of these three uses is the fundamental meaning that it is about something being defined up-front (usually by some director or coach), rote-learned¹ (by the actors or players), and then ‘delivered’ (regurgitated?) on instruction.

I can almost picture the Director on set shouting “aaand…action!!” 

There’s Playbooks everywhere!

Now, a script for a play makes sense to me. It would be a good idea if the actors knew what to say².

Set moves in sport make some sense to me…although these can quickly become a liability as and when things don’t turn out as envisaged or (even worse) ‘the other side’ work them out.

But: Business Playbooks, Product Playbooks, Sales Playbooks, Leadership Playbooks…Design Playbooks, Innovation Playbooks, Culture Playbooks?!³

Why the discomfort?

If the word ‘playbook’ means something specific – as it does (see definition above) – and if we then attach that word to something (everything!) we have ‘codified’, we risk the fundamental definition becoming the reality (#self-fulfilling prophecy).

And that’s a problem to me…because I don’t want the properties of a playbook for just about everything that is being called one!

I want the main emphasis to be on thinking about meeting purpose & principles – not on categorising what is before us and then following the associated rules and procedures.

“Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex intelligent behaviour.

[Complicated] rules and regulations give rise to simple stupid behaviour” (Dee Hock)

I want the people at the front line (those creating value) to be thinking for themselves.

“With every pair of hands you get a free brain – but whether the brain is engaged depends on the design of the work.” (John Seddon)

I want those tasked with management to be consumed with enabling the front line to achieve client purpose.

“Managers must see themselves as experimenters leading learning, not dictators who impose control.” (Peter Scholtes)

…and the use of the word playbook is, to my mind, a blocker!

It assumes that we just follow two steps:

• Step 1: we look up our situation ‘in a book’ (as if they are all in there); and
• Step 2: we apply the specified ‘solution’, and this will fit/ work.

Hmmm, that’s not how I understand meaningful change to come about within social systems.

To close with an imaginary conversation:

Writer: “I’ve finished my draft text for [subject in focus], can you take a look.”

Publisher: “Sure, but first we need to sort the title.”

Writer: “Oh, okay…”

Publisher: “We’ll call it ‘The [subject in focus] Playbook!’ “

Writer: “Er, Playbook? Why that?”

Publisher: “Because everyone’s doing it!”

Writer: “But won’t that mean that everyone thinks they can get hold of an easy-to-copy ‘answer’ for anything and everything?”

Publisher: “Exactly!!!”

 

Footnotes:

1. Rote learning: I understand that rote learning is a memorisation technique, with the point being that the speed of our recall becomes faster the more we repeat it.

And I ‘get’ that, in certain scenarios, this might be useful…but not for much (most) of what we need from people trying to understand and help others.

2. Of note: I reflect that some of the best ‘on screen’ moments are where an actor ad-libbed (i.e. made it up on the spot) and the Director kept it in the final cut.

As usual, I looked up ‘ad-lib’ to double check meaning…and I laughed hard when I came across something called an ‘ad-lib template’. Seems slightly oxymoronic to me 🙂

3. I googled the use of ‘Playbook’ and, just wow, everything and everyone seems to have one!