Playmaker Standard Guidance

Behind every strategy and surrogate of the Playmaker taxonomy is a rich online resource of more than 1,000 options and expert tips for running plays. It’s your window into how the world’s most successful corporations, governments, celebrities, and grass-roots activists employ influence.

Whereas the taxonomy names and organizes the 23 elements of influence, Playmaker Standard Guidance™ describes them and more:

  • Common characteristics and typical outcomes of every play and surrogate.
  • Estimated risks and rewards of each individual play.
  • Options for countering and complementing any play in the system.
  • Tips for decoding plays, especially those being run against you.
  • Short case histories of every play in action, from World War II trickery to celebrity stuntery.

With this information, you can know quickly and far more precisely what’s happening in your markets and what moves to make.

  • A leader won’t react. Why? Tap PAUSE then Profile.
  • You need to apologize. But how? And when? Tap CONCEDE then Conditions.
  • Tough questions are coming. Can you divert them? And at what cost? Tap DECOY then Negative Effects (i.e., risks).
  • Media are morphing your message. Is it worth restating? Tap RECAST then Positive Effects (i.e., rewards).
  • Activists are running a play. But which one? Take a guess, tap a play, then Decode.
  • A whisper campaign is starting to hurt. Can you curb or kill the innuendo? Tap PING then Counter.
  • The market is buying a bold idea. Can you push it past its tipping point? Tap PEACOCK then Complement.
  • Your position just got poached. When has this happened before? Tap PREEMPT then Cases.

But this is not gospel. Every market is infinitely nuanced and its players are invariably diverse. As its name implies, Standard Guidance offers only what we have observed to be generally but not exclusively true about the 23 elements of influence. While it’s not the perfect playbook, this carefully curated resource helps you calibrate the nature of a market’s play action and the possibilities of managing it through influence strategy.

For a printable infographic on Playmaker Standard Guidance, please tap here.