Published cartoon ·
Chief BS Architect
The strategy is magnificent. The evidence is not load-bearing.
Why this one bites
The architect presents a classical structure built from vision, value, strategy and transformation, supported by synergy and alignment. Its base is labelled assumptions. The evidence block sits outside the structure, beside a colleague asking about the missing cornerstone.
The illustration turns rhetorical confidence into a construction method. A desired conclusion comes first, then language and selective support are arranged around it. Because the plan is difficult to question, even visible cracks can be reclassified as part of the transformation rather than evidence of a weak foundation.
Accessible summary
- A hard-hatted architect displays a temple of corporate language with a long Narrative banner. A gap at the base sits beside a separate block labelled Evidence.
- The construction instructions start with the desired conclusion, replace missing facts with confidence and reinforce the result with acronyms and slides.
Reading notes
A compelling narrative can help people understand a sound proposal. It cannot supply the evidence on which the proposal depends. The architect reverses that relationship by starting with the desired conclusion and arranging impressive language around it. Once the building looks substantial, asking about the foundation can be presented as a failure to appreciate the vision rather than a necessary question about whether it will stand.
The loose evidence block is the crucial detail. Evidence exists as something that could have shaped the design, but it has been left outside because the design is already preferred. If it does not fit, the temptation is to explain why the block is irrelevant. The plan is protected from the very information that might make it more reliable.
Useful strategic language connects an objective to choices: what will be done, what will not be done, which assumptions matter and how progress will be recognized. Words such as transformation become evasive when they can explain any outcome equally well. The cartoon gives those words physical weight so their missing support is impossible to overlook. The architect has solved a presentation problem, producing a structure that looks expensive and purposeful. Whether it can carry the work remains an entirely separate engineering question.