Things I wish Sun Tzu had saidThings I wish Sun Tzu had saidHistory’s greatest military quotes

and how to apply themto further your career.

Jonathan Isernhagenjonathan@isernhagen.us

#Jon_Isernhagenwww.linkedin.com/in/isernhagen

Sun TzuChinese strategist and general 544-496 BC

“The Art of War”

Inspiration to leaders,

Military and non-military…

…General Vo Nguyen Giap…

Architect of Dien Bien Phu

…Marine 2nd-Lieutenants…

“The Art of War” is onThe Commandant’s

reading list.

…and Patriots’ coach Bill Belichick.

Author of famous sayings…

• “The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.” • “The more you sweat in peacetime,

the less you bleed in war.”• “If you wait by the river long enough,

sooner or later the body of your enemy will float by.”

Match the Quote

Quote Luminary

“If you believe in yourself, anything is possible.” Sun Tzu

“You have to believe in yourself.” Paris Hilton

“Believe in yourself and everybody’s hot.” Miley Cyrus

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/believe_in_yourself.html

…and not-so-famous sayings

• “Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance.”• “Invincibility lies in the defense;

the possibility of victory in the attack.”• “The quality of decision is like the well-

timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.”

Foundational figure, like Bob Hope

Whom we respect and admire….

• “You know you're getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.”

• “Middle age is when your age starts to show around your middle.”

• “A sense of humor is good for you. Have you ever heard of a laughing hyena with heart burn?”

…but no longer actually laugh at.

Proposed alternative

1) Introduce some of the best quotes throughout all military history, where “best” =

a) Spoken by a top admiral or generalb) Applicable to modern corporate careersc) Good springboard for discussion/debate

2) Recall their original context3) Discuss relevance in modern business context

Gustavus Adolphus Magnus

• Warrior King of Sweden• 12/9/1594 – 11/6/1632• Led armies perpetually

from age 17 until death• Took Sweden from regional to

Europe’s 3rd largest nation• Reversed the course of the

30-year war• “Father of Modern Warfare”

Adolphus’ InnovationsInnovation Benefit

Uniform of “sad green color” Anticipated modern camouflage

Provision from pre-positioned magazines. Improved mobility

Light, standardized field artillery Improved battle mobility and rate of fire

Paper-cartridge musketry 3x greater rate of fire

Meritocracy (vs. Seniority) Optimal leadership in all branches

Cross-training and egalitarianism Army was flexible and adaptable, with high esprit de corps.

http://septianikaprasetya.blogspot.com/2011/11/thirty-years-war.html

“My troops are poor Swedish and Finnish peasant fellows, it’s true, rude and ill-dressed; but they smite hard,

and soon they shall have better clothes.”

http://septianikaprasetya.blogspot.com/2011/11/thirty-years-war.html

Parsing Adolphus

Adolphus’ men Adolphus’ opponentsIll-clad Polished

“Hard-smiting” peasant/performers

Well-connected burgher/aristocracy

For professional success in the modern workplace, is it better to be well-groomed and -connected, or talented/ambitious?

Polished vs NotAssumes a tradeoff.

Not a question of whether to be a slob, but rather:

How much energy to spend on appearance?

Appearance = Competence

“…following the defeat of the U.S. II Corps…at the Battle of the Kasserine Pass, Patton replaced Major General Lloyd Fredendall as commander …

With orders to take the battered and demoralized formation into action in 10 days' time, Patton immediately introduced sweeping changes, ordering all soldiers to wear clean, pressed and complete uniforms, establishing rigorous schedules, and requiring strict adherence to military protocol. ”

Appearance = Distraction

“General Patton….was notorious for being a martinet about dress and spit-and-polish in the Third Army.

Patton’s spit-and-polish obsession …not only had nothing to do with winning, it hurt the war effort…

Eventually…Leeseman got the maps and returned to 26th Division hq. It was 0500 hours. The division had been ready to move since 0100.”

Dressing for Success

“My research documents that, in matters of clothing, conservative, class-conscious conformity is absolutely essential to the individual success of the American business and professional man. Executives in particular constitute a herd…”

A view from outside

• Buy clothes that will last a long time. Lean towards wools and cottons.

• Know what shoes to wear and keep them in proper shape.

• Buy good luggage and briefcases—people notice.

• There are work clothes, school clothes and church clothes. Don’t mix them up.

Promotion Causality

When dealing with young people, getting promoted, there are basics:• Show talent.• Bring ideas.• Bring solutions with problems.• Do two jobs at once.• Be a joy to be around.• Dress to win, like you belong where

you're going. Resist this and it's a fatal flaw. Costume costs.

• Get skills needed for next job, your responsibility.

• Be known.

Parsing Adolphus

Adolphus’ men Adolphus’ opponentsIll-clad Polished

“Hard-smiting” peasant/performers

Well-connected burgher/aristocracy

Peasants as ICs vs. Burghers as Connectors

In praise of connections

“I watched how the people who had reached professional heights unknown to my father and mother helped each other.

They found one another jobs… and they made sure their kids got help getting into the best schools, the right internships, and ultimately the best jobs.”

In praise of connections

Un-obvious ideas:1) Interact authentically:

a) Don’t just scatter business cardsb) Don’t look over shoulders

2) Exert yourself to help others3) Be choosy where you network:

a) Networking events full of desperate job seekers: bad

b) 1st/Business class: good

The value of acquaintances

“56% of those he talked to found their job through a personal connection…• only 16.7% saw that contact ‘often’ as

they would if that contact were a good friend

• 55.6% saw their contact only ‘occasionally.’

• 28% saw the contact ‘rarely.’People weren’t getting their jobs through their friends. They were getting them through their acquaintances.”

The rising importance of merit

“Harvard was not so hard to get into in the fall of 1952. An applicant’s chances of getting in were about two out of three, and close to 90% if his father had gone to Harvard.

[By 1960] Harvard had been transformed from a school primarily for the northeastern socioeconomic elite into a school populated by the brightest of the bright, drawn from all over the country.”

Smiting the task list

“Maybe what you’re working on is important, interesting or useful; or maybe it isn’t but it has to be done anyway. In the first case you want to get as much return as you can on your investment of time and energy. In the second, you want to get on to other things as fast as you can, without any nagging loose ends.”

Smiting the task list

1) Empty your brain into the list2) Use one list, review it often

a) Bucket by type and locationb) Top task: focus, kill, repeat

3) Turn inbox into tasks:a) Only do e-mail when readyb) Summarize, with next actionc) Include all needed info

4) Re-examine stale tasks

“When people ask me, ‘how do you make it in show business,’ or whatever, what I always tell them — and nobody ever takes note of it ‘cuz it’s not the answer they wanted to hear…but I always say, ‘Be so good they can’t ignore you.’”

Our Adolphus Takeaways

1) Don’t let clothes/appearance overshadow your skills and accomplishments.

2) Networking:a) Don’t “network” in the superficial senseb) Do cultivate an extended web of real friends

3) Tasks: a) Seek out challenging tasks / great resume fodderb) Execute wellc) Document publically & precisely

Admiral Horatio Nelson

• English Admiral• 9/29/1758 – 10/21/1805• One of history’s top naval

strategists• Commanded British fleets

to numerous victories during Napoleon’s land dominance

• BBC’s “9th greatest Briton”

Winter 1801: The Situation

• French own the Continent, Brits the sea• Royal Navy searches & seizes neutral ships• Denmark-Norway, Sweden, Prussia, Russia unite• Baltic sea is thawing, freeing Russian ships

“Leave off Action.”

“I really do not see the signal.”

Parsing NelsonNelson’s priorities Sir Hyde Parker's priorities

Agency ObedienceAutonomy Teamwork

Urgency/Immediacy Reflectiveness/ReposeDaring/Opportunism Security / Risk avoidance

“I ordered my two 5” after mounts to use high capacity ammunition and shift targets to the two destroyers closing from astern…

“‘But Mr. Speaks, we’re supposed to handle the air targets; who said to shift targets?’ my mount captain asked.”

Working assumptions

1) A meritocratic system has promoted:a) the most capable member of the organization, with;b) the broadest cognitive bandwidth, to leadership;

2) The leader has the best combination of:a) backwards-looking historical knowledge and;b) forward-looking creative ideation;

3) All relevant information converges on the leader, the only one equipped to make the right decision;

4) Mistakes or delays, can have irrecoverably deadly consequences for the entire organization.

Japanese Management

Professor

1) Allow workers to understand their roles in the "big picture.“2) Eliminate fear.3) Ensure that your leaders are approachable and that they work with teams to act in the company's best interests.

“Neutron Jack” on personnel

The high performance/low values match players are poison in your organization

Bitching is a form of pay

“Be an instrument of your own policy.”

-General Cummings

Wisdom of Teams

“Galton came across a weight-judging competition. A fat ox had been selected and placed on display, and members of a gathering crowd were lining up to place wagers on the weight of the ox*… The crowd guessed that the ox would weigh 1,198 pounds. The ox weighed 1,197 pounds.”

*after it had been slaughtered and dressed

Efficient Frontier of CollaborationGrowing relationships(≈not irritating everyone)

Accomplishingcollaborative tasks

Place yourself along this curve.Don’t antagonize co-workers

for no good reason.

Parsing NelsonNelson’s priorities Sir Hyde Parker's priorities

Agency ObedienceAutonomy Teamwork

Urgency/Immediacy Reflectiveness/ReposeDaring/Opportunism Security / Risk avoidance

Bias towards action

Patton on urgency

“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”

Causes of Inertia

“Procrastination is not the cause of our problems with accomplishing tasks, it is an attempt to resolve a variety of underlying issues:• Low self-esteem;• Perfectionism;• Fear of failure and of success;• Indecisiveness;• Imbalance between work/play;• Ineffective goal-setting, and;• Negative concepts re: work/self.”

Brighton: Look, sir, we can't just do nothing.

Allenby: Why not? It's usually best.

Second-mover advantage

Sometimes, saying nothing and waiting until the other side makes a move is the best offense. The

Japanese have perfected this strategy.

Mistakes and Mobility

Waterfall vs. Agile: reflect the relative costs of making mistakes vs. being outrun by competition.

Powell on decision timing

"Use the formula:P=40 to 70, in which:• P stands for the probably

of success, and;• the numbers indicate the

percentage of information acquired.

Once the information is in the 40 to 70 range, go with your gut.”

Our Nelson Takeaways

1) Be intentional about obedience:a) If a dumb order is easy, execute it quickly/cheerfullyb) If stupid management is holding you back, maneuver

2) Try to understand the “why” behind stupid-seeming ideas embedded in tradition or the heads of your teammates.

3) Before delaying, know exactly what new information will make for a smarter decision.

Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte

• First French Emperor since Charles the Fat (881-887)

• 8/15/1769 – 5/5/1821• Ruled Continental Europe• Authored Napoleonic Code• One of the history’s greatest

military commanders

Situation: War of the Third Coalition, 1805Napoleon wanted to invade England, but Nelsondefeated French Admiral Villeneuve at Trafalgar.

Napoleon turned back towards continental enemies, defeated Austro-Russian army:• inflicted 25K casualties on numerically-superior force • cost 7K casualtiesConsidered his greatest victory.

“If you set out to take Vienna, take Vienna.”

MOOSEMUSSTerm Explanation

M ass Synchronize to deliver overwhelming power at decisive place & time.

O bjective Direct efforts towards clearly-defined, decisive, attainable objective.

O ffensive Seize, retain and exploit the initiative.

S ecurity Protect one’s forces, give adversary no unexpected advantage.

E conomy of Force

Apply resources judiciously, leave no part of force w/out an objective.

M aneuver Application combat power flexibly to place enemy at disadvantage.

U nity of Command

Empower one responsible commander bringing all forces to bear.

S urprise = Consequence of shock from introducing the unexpected.

S implicity Give clear, concise orders which are easy to understand and execute.

Parsing Napoleon

There is nothing worse than breaking the eggs with no omelet to show for it.1) Choose carefully the projects you commit to.2) Once committed, fight through so something

that looks like a victory

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.‘” Luke 25:28-30

Contrarian view: court failure aggressively

“Want to increase your own performance? Set high goals where you have a 50 to 70 percent chance of success. According to the late David McClelland, psychologist and Harvard researcher, that’s the sweet spot for high achievers.

Parsing Napoleon

There is nothing worse than breaking the eggs with no omelet to show for it.1) Choose carefully the projects you commit to.2) Once committed, fight through so something

that looks like a victory

Persistence pays

Genetics ≠ Destiny

For persons of at least minimal talent:• 4,000 hours = teacher• 6,000 hours = proficient• 10,000 hours = master

Silent Cal pipes up

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.

Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.

Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.

Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.

Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

Our Napoleon Takeaways

1) Know your capabilities and options.2) Choose your projects well.3) Once engaged, grind it out, all the way through.

Final TakeawaysFocus on performing the job at hand.Dress for the job you want to have.Be a true friend, actively cultivate true friends.Do what you’re great at.

Obey/collaborate or not intentionally, not emotionally.Manage your image as a team player.Know the costs of too-fast and too-slow movement.Move as fast as you can without making big mistakes.

Use your limited resources wisely.Once committed, attack the problem relentlessly.Continue the effort, even when all seems hopeless.Invest in developing skills you’ll use for years to come.

Parting words from Aristophanes

“Oh! Joy, joy! No more helmet, no more cheese nor onions! No, I have no passion for battles, what I love is to drink with good comrades in the corner by the firewhen good dry wood, cut in the height of summer, is crackling; it is to cook pease on the coals and beechnuts among the embers; ‘tis to kiss our pretty Thracian while my wife is at the bath.”