August 27th, 2007
Master Sun: “Assess the advantages in taking advice, then structure your forces accordingly, to supplement extraordinary tactics. Forces are to be structured strategically, based on what is advantageous.”
Cao Cao: “Structure depends on strategy: strategy is determined according to events.”
Adaptation: Do not form your assessments in a vacuum. While it is important to keep your own counsel and reserve decision making to the appropriate parties in the chain of command, it is nonetheless imperative to avoid groupthink by placing your assessments before disinterested subject matter experts who can give you an objective evaluation of your assessments.
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August 22nd, 2007
Master Sun: “Therefore use these assessments for comparison, to find out what the conditions are. That is to say, which political leadership has the way? Which general has ability? Who has the better climate and terrain? Whose discipline is effective? Whose troops are stronger? Whose officers and soldiers are the better trained? Whose system of rewards and punishments is clearer? This is how you can know who will win.”
Li Quan: “A political leadership that has the Way (virtue) will surely have a military leadership that has intelligence and ability.”
Du Mu: “Ask yourself which political leadership of your own or that of your enemy’s is able to reject flatterers and draw close to the wise.”
Mei Yaochan: “The question regarding political leadership is, who is able to win the hearts of the people?”
Adaptation: By reintroducing the value of comparison we are being encouraged to remember that the assessments are to be used to arrive at a relative understanding of contrasting strengths and weaknesses in the balance of powers of two or more given opponents. The objective of the strategic assessment exercise is to understand who is likely to win before strategy is formed.
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August 20th, 2007
Master Sun: “Every general has heard of these five things. Those who know them prevail, those who do not know them do not prevail.”
Zhang Yu writes: “Everyone has heard of these five things, but only those who deeply understand the principles of adaptation and impasse will win.”
Adaptation: Skillful Talent Strategists contrast and compare the relative strengths and weaknesses of their own organization’s with those of opponents. They pay particular attention to the gaps that may exist in their own positioning.
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August 17th, 2007
Master Sun: “Discipline means organization, chain of command and logistics.”
Mei Yaochan writes: “Organization means that the troops must be grouped in a regulated manner. Chain of command means that there must be officers to keep the troops together and guide them. Logistics means overseeing supplies.”
Adaptation: Skillful Talent Strategists align the configuration of their recruitment organization to the needs of the enterprises they support. Deciding whether to centralize or decentralize the employment group should be a function of maximizing organizational effectiveness rather than an exercise in the power dynamics of corporate politics.
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August 15th, 2007
Master Sun: “Leadership is a matter of intelligence, trustworthiness, humaneness, courage, and sternness.”
Du Mu: “The way of the ancient kings was to consider humaneness foremost, while the martial artists considered intelligence foremost. This is because intelligence involves ability to plan and to know when to change effectively. Trustworthiness means to make people sure of punishment or reward. Humaneness means love and compassion for people, being aware of their toils. Courage means to seize opportunities to make certain of victory, without vacillation. Sternness means to establish discipline in the ranks by strict punishments.”
Jia Lin: “Reliance on intelligence alone results in rebelliousness. Exercise of humaneness alone results in weakness. Fixation on trust results in folly. Dependence on the strength of courage results in violence. Excessive sternness of command results in cruelty. When one has all five virtues together, each according to its function, then one can be a military leader.”
Adaptation: Here we are offered the classical description of the personal qualities embodied by genuine leaders according Sun Tzu and his commentators over the last 100 generations or so. While the message may appear self-evident its adaptation may not be.
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August 13th, 2007
Master Sun: “The terrain is to be assessed in terms of distance, difficulty or ease of travel, dimension and safety.”
Zhang Yu: “In any military operation, it is important first to know the lay of the land. When you know the distance to be traveled, then you can plan whether to proceed directly of by a circuitous route. When you know the difficulty or ease of travel, then you can determine the advantages of infantry or mounted troops. When you know the dimension of the area, then you can assess how many troops you need, many or few. When you know the relative safety of the terrain, then you can discern whether to do battle or disperse.”
Adaptation: One way of understanding terrain is that it is the context within which your campaign will unfold. Talent Strategists apply their understanding of the markets they compete in by taking circumstance (organizational posture) and situation (marketplace realities) into consideration. Over time they learn to visualize statistical abstractions as physical space (terrain).
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August 9th, 2007
Master Sun: “The weather means the seasons.”
Cao Cao: “The rules of the ancient military state that operations should not be carried out in winter or summer, out of concern for the people.”
Wang Xi (Quoting from Li): “This is the meaning of the saying, Don’t go into another’s territory at an unfavorable time.”
Adaptation: Talent Strategists study the markets they work in with particular attention to seasonal factors. These can be understood in terms of climate.
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August 7th, 2007
Master Sun: “The way means inducing people to have the same aim as the leadership, so that they will share death and share life, without fear of danger.”
Cao Cao: “This means guiding them by instruction and direction. Danger means distrust.”
Zhang Yu: “If the people are treated with benevolence, faithfulness, and justice, then they will be of one mind, and will be glad to serve.”
Adaptation: Talent Strategists understand that employment brands are built on the foundation of corporate culture (or the way of the leadership). If the leadership is unsettled and inconsistent, the results of recruiting campaigns may sometimes be successful but retaining the people will be challenging.
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August 2nd, 2007
Master Sun: “Therefore measure in terms of five things, use these assessments to make comparisons, and thus find out what the conditions are. The five things are the way, the weather, the terrain, the leadership, and discipline.”
Du Mu: “These are to be assessed at headquarters - first assess yourself and your opponent in terms of these five things, deciding who is superior. Then you can determine who is likely to prevail. Having determined this, only then should you mobilize your forces.”
Adaptation: Nakedly honest appraisal of the internal and external conditions that currently prevail is the foundation of the assessments made by skillful Talent Strategists. The dimensions to be taken into account include the culture of the organization (the way) and the corporate cultures of ones competitors for talent. Read More…
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July 27th, 2007
Master Sun: “Military action is important to the nation, it is the ground of death and life, the path of survival and destruction, so it is important to examine it.”
Du Mu writes: “The survival or destruction of a country and the life and death of its people may depend on military action, so it is necessary to examine it carefully.”
Mei Yaochan writes: “Whether you live or die depends on the configuration of the battleground, whether you survive or perish depends on the way of battle.”
Adaptation: In the Art of War for Talent, strategists see recruiting as a military action that determines the ultimate failure or success of the enterprises they serve. Recognizing this they approach Talent Warfare with a deep appreciation of the implications of their work.
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