What diplomats could learn from Nebraska
A friend of mine just sent me this:
At a high school in Nebraska, a group of boy students played a prank. They let three goats loose inside the school. But before turning them loose, they painted numbers on the sides of the goats: 1, 2 and 4. School Administrators spent most of the day looking for No. 3. Now that’s funny, I don’t care who you are.
Not only is this funny, it also points to how a clever stratagem can effectively redirect strategic competitors, which comes with an opportunity cost attached.
If your competitors are running around looking for a non-existent number 3, they aren’t doing much to counter your existing initiatives.
This is even better than using dummies and decoys, since a ruse like this requires neither time nor materiel, only a good idea.
