The Science -- The 47 Key Principles
The Need
for the Science
Proof the Science
Works
Information and
Decisions
Innovation
and Sun Tzu
The Nine Primary
Formulas
The 47 Key Principles
 (This document with additional commentary is also available as a
FREE PDF download from Strategy-Shop.com.)
Below are the 47
key principles from the formulas in
Sun Tzu's The Art of War. These principles are taken from
the award-winning book
The Golden Key to Strategy (Ben Franklin Award for Self-Help, 2006), which explains Sun Tzu's concepts in
a simple and entertaining way. If 47 principles sounds like a lot to digest, you
might want to start wit the 9 Primary Formulas.
- The "Journey of Life" Principle of Advance:
Strategy is the science of advancing positions. All advances must start from
your current position. Your current position has everything in it that you
need to advance. The worst position is, by definition, the easiest to advance.
No position is permanent. Classical strategy consists of the techniques for
advancing positions.
The "Cornering Rabbits and Snakes" Principle of Instinct:
Until they learn to respond in more effective ways, people make decisions
based solely on their emotions and habits. Since most people are untrained,
you can predict their behavior by understanding the most common emotional
responses are instinctual. The only inborn responses to challenge are the
"flight or fight" responses. Classical strategy teaches hundreds of other
responses and when to use them.
The "Many Eyes See Clearly" Principle of Perspective:
Seeing strategic positions requires the perspective of a broad range of
viewpoints. Each individual has a unique viewpoint, but every viewpoint is
inherently limited by its own position. The result is that people cannot get a
useful perspective on their own situations and surrounding opportunities
without getting information from others. The first techniques of strategy
involve what information to gather. The most advanced techniques teach how to
gather it.
The "Reach Sky by Embracing Earth" Principle of Position: Your
strategic position exists
as your span of control in a specific area of your life. The elements of
"climate" and "ground" define the nature of the competitive environment. They
define what is changing and what resources are available. The elements that
define control are called "command" and "methods." Command is your ability to
make decisions. Methods are your skills in working with others. Connecting
these four elements is the fifth element called "mission" or philosophy, which
defines your goals and values. Mastering strategy means seeing all positions
instinctively in terms of these five elements.
The "Steps on the
Path" Principle of Mission:
What
people do is less
important than why they do it. Actions can be predicted only by understanding
the motivations that drive them. To foresee your options, you start by
categorizing the motivations that drive those in positions that affect your
own. People operate at three levels of motivation: physical, social, and
spiritual. The science of strategy teaches how mission creates strength in a
position. The "Winter Snow Feeds Summer Heat" Principle of Climate:
All strategic positions are shaped by forces of change. In classical strategy, these
forces are called the climate. All competitive environments are dynamic. These
forces cannot be controlled,
but they can be leveraged. Some changes are chaotic but some changes
follow cycles that can be predicted. Opposing forces, called "complementary
opposites," create cycles where the rise of one force leads inevitably to its
weakening and the rise of its opposing force. The techniques of strategy
teaches how to foresee and leverage these changes.
The "Harvest the Planted Field" Principle of Ground:
All positions are grounded in the economics of resources. The ground is the
physical component of a position that gives it stability over time. Every type
of ground has its own rules and its own climate. Classical strategy teaches a
set of meta rules for choosing and moving to better ground and thereby
improving your position over time.
The "Emperor of All Creation" Principle of Command:
Command is the ability to make decisions affecting the control of ground.
Command is a creative force and it is driven by character. Five components determine
their character: intelligence, courage, trustworthiness, caring, and
discipline. Character flaws result not only from the absence of these
characteristics but from their excess as well. Classical strategy teaches how
to overcome flaws in allies and use them in opponents.
The "Happy Student of Ancient Master" Principle of Methods:
Methods allow groups of people to work together. The methods of an individual
are called skills. The methods of a group are called processes or procedures.
Methods arise out of the creative decisions of command but must be evaluated
based on their service to mission. The science of strategy is itself as set of
methods (the term "bing-fa" means literally "competitive methods")
specifically devoted to advancing positions.
The "Hidden Wheels" Principle of Complementary Opposites: Strategy
analyzes competitive systems. According to the science of strategy all
competitive systems
are a balance of complementary
opposites. These opposing forces create and control each other and exist
everywhere within the competitive environment. For example, the objective and
subjective nature of positions are complementary opposites. Our physical position shapes the judgment of others. Others' opinions
determine what we control. Another example is that all challenges are seen as
complementary opposites. They balance problems and
opportunities. Problems create opportunities and opportunities generate new
problems. The
"Plant the Empty Field" Principle of Opportunity:
Opportunities exist as openings in the environment that allow you to
advance your position in the direction of your mission.
You cannot create opportunities. Opportunities are created by the forces in
the environment. Positions are advanced by recognizing
opportunities. Opportunities are difficult to see because they consist of
emptiness, that is, an opening in the environment. The science of strategy
explores ways for identifying hidden opportunities.
The "Endless Bounty of Flowing River" Principle of Creation:
New opportunities are constantly created by the natural, ongoing process of
change. As new methods are discovered to exploit new resources, new valuable
ground is created. Classical strategy teaches that ground and climate are
infinite because whole new environments are constantly being discovered or
created by the forces of change. The creation of cyberspace is only the most
recent and dramatic example of the emergence of a new set of ground resources
with its associated new climate.
The "Breeze Topples Mountains" Principle of Destruction:
Existing positions can be defended only temporarily because they are
constantly degraded by change. The same forces that create opportunities also
destroy existing positions. As new resources are discovered, existing
resources are devalued. Human history is not the story of resources being
exhausted but the story of new resources outmoding old ones. Strategy teaches
that positions must be advanced because in competitive environments,
destruction takes the hindmost.
The "Harvesting of All Desire" Principle of Success: Success
means advancing a position to better meet a mission. It is not enough simply
to move. All moves must also pay rewards. Since all movement
requires physical, social, and spiritual resources, the reward from a move
must compensate for its costs. Most advances yield minimal rewards but,
correctly done, can
position you for the key advances that can yield tremendous rewards. Many of
the rules of strategy focus on controlling the costs and risks of movement as
you maneuver into a position to harvest these rewards.
The "Four Legs of Fast Horse" Principle of Progress:
You must complete a cycle of four steps to make any successful advance. These
steps can be described as listen, aim, move, and claim. If any step in this
cycle, called the Progress Cycle, is missing no advance is possible. Working the Progress Cycle is like riding
a bicycle. You must press on one peddle then shift to the other in order to
move forward, alternating input and output, decisions and actions. You cannot
move forward if you press on just one pedal, no matter how hard you work.
The "Small Steps Up High Mountain" Principle of Repetition:
The Progress Cycle gains power with repetition. A number of quick, small
cycles of advance are more powerful and unstoppable than a single big advance. The most
important form of speed is cycle time: the time between the knowledge gained
by listening and the claim made possible by moving. Each advance in the same
direction yields more progress with less cost. Another advantage of repeating small, quick steps is that they allow you to change directions
more easily, taking advantage of new opportunities.
The "Raindrops Fill Oceans" Principle of Scalability:
The Progress Cycle is a standard model both for large-scale advances
(generally referred to as "campaigns") and for smaller-scale advances. Each
step in the Progress Cycle (listen, aim, move, claim) can be broken down into
a number of separate smaller progress cycles. Properly used, this technique of
breaking steps into parts is especially useful for overcoming obstacles.
The "Voyage to Golden Shore" Principle of Campaigns:
Campaigns are large-scale advances in a specific direction. Campaigns are
undertaken to make major readjustments in position, especially circumventing a
large obstacle. Generally speaking, success in terms of a payoff is only
possible at the end of a campaign. Campaigns require a large investment of
time and resources before they can be successful. This makes them inherently
risky. Campaigns commonly pass through nine specific stages, each of
which requires a specific response.
The "Five Notes in Song" Principle of Listening:
Listening is necessary to gain a perspective on your situation and especially
your opportunities. Most people rely on too few resources for their
information. You need five different types of information sources for a
well-rounded perspective on your position. We describe these resources as old
hands, new eyes, insiders, guides, and missionaries.
The "One Arrow, One Target" Principle of Aiming:
You can move in only one direction at a one time. The purpose of aiming is to find
the
best possible direction for the current move in light of future potential
moves and to pick the right time to move. Success is unpredictable because you cannot know exactly the true
costs and rewards before making any given move. Because of this, you must be
prepared for a move to fail. Therefore, most of the techniques of aiming
focus on minimizing risk.
The "Snake Strikes Instantly" Principle of Moving:
In order to move successfully, you must immediately recognize and respond
to traffic conditions. There are nine common traffic conditions that you can
encounter. Each requires a specific appropriate response. There three barriers
to movement, obstacles, dangers, and distances, but these barriers can also be
used as defenses. The goal of every move is to reach the best available
defendable position in the direction of the move with the minimum expenditure
of resources in the fastest possible time.
The "Flag Over Watchtower" Principle of Claiming:
A position cannot be rewarding unless it is claimed. Positions must be clearly
claimed in order to defend them, to reap their rewards, and to use them as
stepping-stones for a future advance. The strategic process of claiming
identifies the potential, the boundaries, the ownership, and the methods for
utilizing a given position.
The "Questions Like Rain" Principle of Asking:
Good strategy depends upon asking others for information and commitment. The only vital weapon
in strategy is the human mind.
Only by asking the right
questions can you get other people’s minds working for you. By definition, you cannot
see opportunities and barriers from your own limited perspective. You
cannot learn the terrain, select opportunities, coordinate your movements,
or make your claims without asking others for their support.
The "Clap of the Thunder" Principle of Selective Hearing:
Information is the basis for all strategy, but information depends on
communication, which is an imperfect process. People use words to hide and
mislead as often as they use words to communicate.
Communication is as much about filtering information as it is about
transmitting it. The three barriers to movement (obstacles, dangers, and
distances) are also obstacles in communication. The principles of
strategy teach you both how to leverage and overcome these barriers.
| Warning: Beyond this point, these principles become more
difficult. Though we can describe them, we cannot do justice to them in
the limited space of this article. |
The "Day Follows Night" Principle of Reversal: Extreme
conditions tend to reverse themselves, often quite quickly. "Conditions" are
characteristics that describe relative strengths and weaknesses. Big, small, hot, cold, fast, slow,
hard, soft, dark, light, open, closed, far, near, and so on are all
conditions. Though often stated in terms of their extremes, conditions are not
complementary opposites but a range between extremes describing a
continuum. When looking at a situation, the balancing mechanisms at work in a
system (complementary opposites) are often hidden. The principle of reversal
teaches you how to foresee sudden changes.
The "Empty Cups Are Filled" Principle of Simplification: One of the most advanced ideas in
strategy, this principle teaches that
complex array of strategic conditions can be simplified into "emptiness" and
"fullness." Emptiness and fullness are the lowest common denominators of all
conditions that exist along a continuum, i.e. big, small, hot, cold, fast,
slow, hard, soft, dark, light, open, closed, far, near, and so on. When
simplified into emptiness and fullness, seemingly bewildering situations can
be more easily understood. The "Filled Cups Are Emptied" Principle of Inversion: This is perhaps the most difficult
strategic concept. It teach that nature
seeks to fill empty conditions and empty full ones, but the emptiness and
fullness of seemingly different conditions directly invert into one
another. For example, the "emptiness" of ground, i.e., a lack of opposing
forces, inverts into the "fullness" of movement, i.e. speed. "Fullness" of
size, i.e. big forces, inverts into the "emptiness" of movement, i.e.
slowness. The science of strategy defines the specific nature of these
inverted relationships and leverage comes from working with these inversions
rather than against them.
The "Water Takes Any Form" Principle of Openings:
Openings
are a form of emptiness that you have the resources to fill and that others
will reward you for filling. These openings are a challenge. From the perspective of
emptiness, the challenge is a problem. From the perspective of fullness, the
challenge is an opportunity. Openings always exist because people always have
needs (emptiness) in one area and a surplus of resources (fullness) in another
area. Leverage seeks to find the proper inversion to change one into
another.
The "Hidden Sword Stays Sharp" Principle of Secrecy:
Ultimately, all resources exist primarily as information, knowledge and
ignorance are the ultimate forms of fullness and emptiness. An all-knowing being
has infinite resources. Humans have extremely limited resources
because they have limited information. Groups have more information and
therefore more resources, but for any group, no matter how large, the amount
of unknown information is virtually infinite. Because information is so
valuable, you must protect all information about you, your position, and your
direction. Strategy teaches you how to use information at the right time to
turn situations to your favor.
The "Perfect Word Is the Purest Gold" Principle of Control:
The least expensive way to control others is to change their perceptions and
feelings. Working with subjective information is less expensive than working
with physical resources. You can leverage your position by working first on
the perceptions of others. However, because of the balancing nature of
systems, you must eventually reinforce subjective perceptions with the
objective proof of actions.
The "Paddling With the Current" Principle of Ease:
You must make the
move that
advances your position.
The path of absolute least resistance always leads to degrading your position.
However, in choosing among paths that advance your position, there is always
one path that allows the most movement with the least resistance. Your
progress along this path is leveraged by the opposing forces of complementary
opposites seeking to rebalance conditions of emptiness and fullness.
The "Traveling Without Baggage" Principle of Less Is More:
Fast, short moves are always more powerful than long, large moves.
Smaller, faster groups make more progress than larger, slower groups. For
every benefit of fullness, there is an opposing (though often very different)
benefit of emptiness. You create strategic leverage by putting a small
amount of the right resources in exactly the right position to create the
maximum advantage. The more often you can leverage the value of minimal
resources, the more successful you will become. The
"Free the Hidden Tiger" Principle of Momentum:
Since perceptions create reality and reality creates perceptions, the least
costly way to overcome resistance is by doing what is completely
unexpected at a critical time. Expectations are set by consistent
performance. Consistent performance is made possible by standard methods.
Standards make progress predictable but unremarkable. At a critical turning
point, standard practices are abandoned and replaced with an innovative
approach. Innovation alone creates surprise and can
overcome specific obstacles. Successful innovations are repeated and
eventually become standard practice. Innovation and standard practices form a
system of complementary opposites that, used correctly, creates momentum.
The "Walls Sharper Than Spears" Principle of Defense:
Positions that are the source of your resources must be defended. Others will
challenge you for those positions to win their resources.
You must defend any existing position until it becomes more profitable to
abandon it.
The most important decisions in matters of defense and advance are decisions
about timing. Over the long term, all positions must be advanced, but in the
short term it is often more rewarding to defend an existing position. Some
positions can be advanced in minor ways without abandoning existing positions.
However, since resources are limited, old positions must often be abandoned to
free up resources to develop new positions. In every case, any existing
position on which you depend for resources must be defended until those
resources are better used elsewhere.
The "Eagle Strikes Bird in Flight" Principle of Decision:
All decisions should be made consciously and quickly. Even the decision not to
act must be a choice rather than the result of indecision. You must
quickly choose the best imperfect available alternative rather than waiting
indefinitely for a perfect alternative. It is better to choose nonaction if
all available actions are too expensive and risky. All decisions have
consequences, but most people suffer much more from the consequences of indecision.
The "Rich Man Counts Pennies" Principle of Parsimony:
You must control your costs because you can never accurately predict your rewards. In
competitive environments, neither the costs of a move nor the results of that
move can be known in advance. Since many advances do not succeed, you must
always retain enough resources to defend your existing position. Each
investment in an advance is a type of gamble. You can never bet more than you
can afford to lose, but you must make bets in order to eventually win.
The "Road Reaches Beyond Sight" Principle of Opportunism:
A path in the right direction always exists, but you cannot know where
that path leads until you try it.
Many attempted advances fail. Most successful advances yield small payoffs,
but when you continually advance in the right direction, it is only a matter
of time until you find yourself in the proper position to take advantage
of a big opportunity. When that opportunity arrives, it will not take the form
you expect. It may not even take you in the direction that you thought you were headed. However, when you recognize such an opportunity, you must seize
it and follow where it leads.
The "Plow to Fit the Seed" Principle of Preparation:
Rewards can be magnified with a little preparation.
Preparation creates the expectations of others. You create expectations that
highlight the value of your actions. You must keep secrets when the value
comes from creating a surprise. You must tell secrets when the value comes
from closer relationship. You must make clear
commitments in controlled situations when the value comes from being
dependable. You must avoid clear commitments in competitive situations when a
specific result is unpredictable. You must let others know only enough of your
plans so that they can reward you.
The "Wings Learn Wind" Principle of Resistance: Resistance is inherent in
all systems and should never be unexpected. If
others know you are making a specific move, some will try to stop you.
Some will try to stop you out of fear of change. Others will try to stop you
because your relative progress reflects poorly upon their lack of progress.
Others will try to stop you simply because they can.
Because resistance is inherent in all systems, you try to keep your moves a
secret. Since resistance in inherent, you must learn to expect it and work
with it. When you cannot keep your moves a secret, select a route that makes
resistance difficult. When such a route isn't available, prepare
surprises to derail resistance when it appears. The
"Move Like Water" Principle of Adaptability:
You must adapt your responses to the specifics of your situation in order to
move. All situations consist of a number of specific conditions that are well
defined within classical strategy (the four types of ground, the six
ground forms, the nine stages, and so on). You must know the specific
responses necessary to adjust to these specific conditions. You must also know
how to combine these various responses to your combination of conditions.
Inappropriate responses raise the cost of every move and decrease the chance
of success.
The "Never Fight Fair" Principle of Conflict:
All conflict is costly. Success is more certain when conflict is avoided.
Threatening conflict is only cost effective when it decreases the chances of
actual conflict. When conflict is unavoidable, you must control the time,
place, expectations, and reports of that conflict. If you set up fights so
that they are unfair, you are less likely to get involved in them.
The "Sharp Lesson for Dull Student" Principle of Recovery:
Mistakes are unavoidable, but you can recover from any mistake as long as you
stop repeating it. On many types of ground, many failed attempts are necessary
to find a path that allows you to advance, but each attempt must try something
different. The faster you can recover from a failed attempt, the quicker your
progress will be. In controlled environments, the analysis of failures can
prevent future failures. In dynamic, competitive environments, conditions change so
that each attempt is a new experiment. The
"Bright Paper Makes Gift" Principle of Packaging:
People make judgments based on what they see. Packaging is a concern with outward
appearances. Everyone
judges a book by its cover. A good package is often as important as a good
product. A fearsome-looking army is challenged less often. People judge the
value of what you offer by the care spent in packaging it.
Packaging influences the subjective judgments of positions. Packaging is
an important part of preparing expectations.
The "Lightning in Dark Skies" Principle of Attention:
Getting attention, that is, overcoming indifference, is the opposite of
overcoming resistance.
The formula for getting attention is the opposite of the formula for
overcoming resistance through
momentum. To overcome indifference, you must first use surprise to win
attention, then you must use expected behavior to change attention into
interest.
The "Full Belly Soon Empty" Principle of Dreams:
When you win a desired position, your dreams change and new challenges arise.
The "Laughing Dragon, Crying Turtle" Principle of Fun:
Using good strategy does not ensure that every move will be successful, but it
does ensure that all moves are more enjoyable.
The "Greet the Rising Sun" Principle of Happiness:
Happiness comes from looking forward to your next successful move, not from looking
back on your past successes.
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