Playing to Win: Scrabble's Strategic Secrets for Business Leaders

Having achieved a modicum of success in Scrabble™, I realize that many of my Scrabble tricks are the same ones I use in business. For example, what is the first thing you should do when you receive your initial seven letter tiles? What is the first thing you should do when starting a new business project? Think.

For me, it is the assessment of current resources. What resources and limitations do we have to work with? In the 90s, I learned this from Paul J. Meyer, the founder of Success Motivation Institute and creator of the famous ‘wheel of life’ personal goals pie diagram. His teaching guided me in helping business owners to pause and consider the five or six main resources of any business and to make efficiency improvement decisions for each.

For many years, I played Scrabble™ thinking it was just about finding the right word, preferably one with seven letters to earn extra points. Like a chess or Scrabble™ board, placement options and positioning opportunities change with every move. Likewise, as with business investment trends and consumer behavior shifts, things are constantly in a state of flux. There are several Scrabble™ tactics that I can share with you, but for the sake of brevity let’s choose a few brain ticklers to get your wheels turning. My first check-in is on my mood, in both games. Am I calm and centered?

Centeredness

When entering into a competitive game, what is your pre-approach attitude? Is it ‘let’s see what happens?’ Are you calm, relaxed, focused, and ready for battle? Or are you a bit over-confident or intimidated by your opponent?

As in business and chess, anticipating future moves and the ability to adjust to changing circumstances is vital. Kung Fu, for example, emphasizes the concept of being centered, both physically and mentally. This involves maintaining a strong, grounded posture and a focused, and calm mind. When you walk into the board room for a challenging conversation, what is your demeanor and mental state? Do you have a relaxed attitude and are you focused on opportunities? Scanning the entire Scrabble™ board applies also to the boardroom. A calm mind will affect your game.

The strategy is to win in business and in Scrabble™, but what are the specific tactics for both? Winning in Scrabble™ is the same as in business: better performance and measurement statistics than the opponent or competitors, which means more points in Scrabble™, and more money in business.

Scrabble's Three Acts

Stages of Play

In Scrabble™ there are any one of a number of moves a player can make. Usually moves are divided into sets of three which I refer to as Acts. In Act I you naturally want to score as high as possible but not at the cost of providing your enemy a great leave, as in billiards. You may initially sacrifice points by clinging tightly to the center of the board and let your opponent expand the territory outwards to reach double and triple letter and word tiles.

Are you gifting your opponent by creating an easy shot at that delicious cherry red triple word tile? In business are you inadvertently affecting your competitive advantage by making it too easy for your competitors to copy you, your innovative inventions, or any of the unique features of your offering?

In Act I, when the Scrabble™ board is relatively open, there are multiple potential placement options. In business this situation is similar. Don’t waste all your moves in an initial conversation or a negotiation. Waiting for the right time to share may have more impact, especially if you save a valuable gem for a special conversation and time. People learn better being spoon fed information rather than dealing with information overload. In business as in Scrabble™ timing is equally important. Don’t waste those high scoring tiles until the game has evolved into Act II or Act III when there are many more opportunities.

Didi Chuxing Transportation Technology Company

Power and Energy Conservation

If you have a driver style personality beware of dominating the conversation. The driver personality style is impatient with conversation silence and may not appreciate that pensive silences and time to absorb what is just said suits many other styles perfectly. Likewise, if you’re playing an untimed Scrabble™ game, let your opponent take as much time as they like as you plan words and placements. Letting them expand the field of play affords you the opportunity to take advantage of possibilities they present with each move. As in martial arts training which is focused on space, time, and repetition, sometimes going more slowly now may mean going faster later.

One perfect example of observing and responding to competition is how China’s Didi Chuxing ride service blew Uber out of its country. In China alone it dominates in over a hundred cities, each with a more than a million citizens. DiDi copied the core Uber concept and massively improved on it, as with rideshare bicycles too. Didi is now the leading transportation platform in the world. Don’t bemoan your opponent making a great move. Each move provides more choices for you. As in competitive sports, congratulate others on their wins.

Thinking Ahead

In Scrabble™, while your opponent thinks about their next word, be busy planning different word placements and setups. When your turn arrives, being able to place your pre-selected word quickly will save you time. This may upset your opponent’s composure, especially if you are using an hourglass timer. ‘Setups’ are when you leave a placement so that it creates a possible future opportunity, notwithstanding your opponent’s next move.

For example, Scrabble has only four S’s. If you notice that three of the four S’s are already played, and you have the fourth one, you can use it to score a triple word. You get the idea.



Business is nothing more than promises fulfilled, so a conversation at the Chamber of Commerce After Hours event may be a setup for a presentation later, a transparent and obvious selling technique, scheduling a ‘let’s meet later’ appointment.

Adaptability and Flexibility

In Scrabble™, particularly in Act II, stay loose and relaxed, knowing that your possible opportunities are created once your opponent moves. In some cases, carefully playing just two tiles can make three words and score really high. I did this recently by adding to the horizontal word ‘he’ the letter X which fell onto a triple letter tile. Then I added the letter U under the X, triple scoring it again for a total of 51 points.

The same applies in business. If you practice self-discipline, then when you are describing your sales prospect’s ideal persona, you probably niche down, down, down with multiple filters. Likewise, if you’re an MD, you’ve niched down to a specialty, perhaps sports medicine, then you’ve niched down to being expert at a particular treatment or surgery.



A basic principle of Kung Fu is “adapt to changing circumstances.” Kung Fu values adaptability and flexibility. Practitioners are taught to adjust their techniques according to the situation, opponent, and environment. So, know this fact: change is constant. Expect disruptions. How flexible are you in adapting to tough situations? Do you have a backup plan, or is it all or nothing? If you are a leader, testing assumptions is the fodder of great brainstorming and problem-solving.

Resource Allocation

When you begin your Scrabble™ game, position your tiles on your tray with the highest scoring tile on the left, and then place the next highest tile, and the next highest tile, etc. If you practice this layout over time you will discover high scoring words. Most Scrabble™ players, except for professional players, do not know this cute little trick that will revolutionize your game if you were previously staring at tiles praying a word would magically reveal itself to you. If this tactic improves your game, please let me know.

In business, routinely consider all your resources such as people, time, money, vehicles, banks, space, equipment, collaborative allies, etc. Plan how to address making each of these items more efficient, but remember that ‘strategic planning’ is an oxymoron. Roger Martin explains why in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuYlGRnC7J8

If you apply these principles, I believe you’ll find Scrabble™ to be more than a just a game. It involves strategy and tactics that directly apply to your business success.

  -  Frank DeDominicis,