Q #214: What are some of the most interesting facts about Sun Tzu and The Art of War?

The Art of War

I am greatly indebted to Thomas Huynh who founded Sonshi.com in 1999 for the information he has accumulated. He was named among BusinessWeek magazine’s “Top 12 Most Engaged Reader-Contributors of 2008″ and is a co-author of The Art of War—Spirituality for Conflict with the editors of Sonshi.com. Here are his responses to four frequently asked questions about Sun Tzu and the book that many scholars believe he wrote.

Q: Why pick a Japanese word for Sun Tzu, a Chinese word?

Huynh: Like many Sun Tzu enthusiasts, we are intrigued by early Japanese culture. Our fascination was further fueled when we learned Sun Tzu was first introduced to Japan as early as 400 A.D. What we found was nothing less than Japan’s earnest efforts in applying Sun Tzu to warfare; the samurai would peruse its contents before each battle. From Takeda Shingen to Minamoto Yoshitsune, they were among the most diligent practitioners of the book’s concepts. Thus, it was appropriate to use the Japanese word for Sun Tzu: Sonshi. A user of Sonshi.com — of any nationality — would likewise want to learn Sun Tzu with the same degree of intensity.

Q: Was the original title just Sun Tzu and The Art of War subtitle was added much later?

Huynh: Yes, that is correct. It was customary at the time of Sun Tzu’s writing to title a work the same as its author. The subtitle was probably added later to provide a summary description of the work. This is why you will find us use “Sun Tzu” and “The Art of War” interchangeably. It is both the name of the author and the name of his only book (known to us). In ancient China, people did not write on paper as we do now; they used bamboo, wood, or silk. Thus, a “book” was oftentimes a roll of bamboo strips.

Q: Did Sun Tzu (Sun Wu) actually write The Art of War?

Huynh: This is a debatable issue. Some scholars believe it indeed was written by Sun Wu himself. However, others believe it was written by followers within the Sun Wu circle. Based on all the evidence we believe the work originally was written by Sun Wu, but later transcribers inserted words like “Sun-tzu said:” and “Ping Fa” (Art of War). After all, the text was highly regarded from day one from someone they obviously respected. The tactics presented could only have been written by somebody with deep knowledge in military strategy and not merely by followers. In addition, the writing also flows as if only one person wrote it.

Q: Many people have been led to believe that Sun Tzu beheaded a king’s favorite concubine to get the attention of the rest. Where is this incident in your account of Sun Tzu.

Huynh: We don’t have this story in our translation because it’s not in the The Art of War. The story is actually in Ssu-ma Chien’s “Shih Chi,” mentioning Sun Tzu and this particular disciplinary action. “The Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yueh” also tells this story except it states Sun Tzu was a native of Wu (not Chi). Sun Tzu training 180 court women to march like soldiers is quite an interesting incident, and thus is often inserted in many Sun Tzu books. Be advised some scholars view the story as apocryphal.

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In Q&A #213, I provide an introduction to Thomas Cleary and a link to a rare and highly enlightening interview of him. You are urged to check out the resources provided at Sonshi.com. Here is a link to it:

http://sonshi.com/index.html

Comments, questions, requests, or suggestions? Please share them.

Book Review: Reality Check

Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition
Guy Kawasaki
Portfolio/The Penguin Group (2008)

Having read all and then reviewed most of Guy Kawasaki’s eight previously published books, I was especially eager to read this one because it was rumored to provide everything he wishes he had known (but most of which he didn’t) when he embarked on his career in business (counting diamonds a fine-jewelry manufacturer called Nova Stylings) while at work on an MBA degree at UCLA. (He had already earned an undergraduate degree at Stanford.) Kawasaki later went to work for an educational software company called EduWare Services. However, Peachtree Software acquired the company and wanted him to move to Atlanta. “I don’t think so. I can’t live in a city where people call sushi ‘bait.’ Luckily, my Stanford roommate, Mike Boich, got me a job at Apple. When I saw what a Macintosh could do, the clouds parted and the angels started singing. For four years I evangelized Macintosh to software and hardware developers and led the charge against world-wide domination by IBM.” By now, presumably, he was accumulating a wealth of real-world experience in leadership and management and well as knowledge about marketing, sales, finance, strategic planning, problem-solving, resource allocation, and customer relations.

Reality Check exceeded my expectations. The twelve (12) “realities” that Kawasaki rigorously examines, in separate chapters devoted to each, include Starting Chapters 1-5), Raising Money (Chapters 6-15), Planning and Executing (Chapters 16-24), Innovating (Chapters 25-31), Marketing (Chapters 32-37), Selling and Evangelizing (Chapters 38-43), Communicating (Chapters 44-52), Beguiling (Chapters 53-63), Competing (Chapters 64-67), Hiring and Firing (Chapters 68-78), Working (Chapters 79-89 followed by a “Timeout”), and Doing Good (Chapters 90-94 followed by a “Conclusion.” Yes, that is correct: This book has 94 chapters plus a “Timeout” and a “Conclusion” provided within (count ‘em) 461 pages plus (thankfully) a comprehensive Index.

As is also true of Kawasaki’s eight other books, the tone is informal, conversational, and at times confrontational; also, the pace is frenetic and the writing style has Snap! Crackle! and Pop! Most important to me, the content is more abundant and of a higher quality than in any other of his previously published books.

Readers will welcome the use of bold face to highlight key points. This device will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent review of those key points later. I especially appreciate the inclusion of several interviews throughout the lively narrative. They include those of Fred Greguras on key legal issues in raising funds (Pages 51-59), Chip and Dan Heath on why only a few innovations “stick” and most don’t (Pages 130-138), Kathleen Gasperini on marketing to young people (Pages 168-175), Garr Reynolds on mastering the “Presentation Zen” approach (Pages 209-214), Robert Cialdini on the art and science of effective persuasion (Pages 243-250, and Libby Sartain shares her perspectives on the recruiting process (Pages 314-317). Note the variety of subjects covered during Kawasaki’s interviews. They correctly suggest the scope and diversity of his interests.

What sets this business book apart from almost others I have read in recent years is the extent to which it provides (quoting Kawasaki in the Introduction) “hardcore information to hardcore people who want to kick ass.” The focus is almost entirely on how to create and then sustain an organization whose people “make the world a better place because of it.” Presumably Kawasaki agrees with Thomas Edison: “Vision without execution is hallucination.” If not you, who? If not now, when?

Is Everybody Tired, or is it Just Me? — Energy and Time Management in the Midst of Challenging Times

Recently, Slate.com ran a test on who is better informed:  newspaper readers exclusively or internet readers exclusively, in its News Junkie Smackdown. The winner seemed to be neither, with both sides wanting and missing the other side’s sources.  But as I read the multi-entry series, I realized how tired I felt just from the task of reading the news.  I read the news constantly – as do so many of us these days.  And I feel that if I miss a story, then somehow I have fallen behind in the universe.  Keeping up is wearing me out.

There are other tasks that are wearing us out – I think we are a tired people, collectively.  Many of my friends now work as “independents,” perpetually scrambling for the next financial possibility, feeling the pressure constantly.  Those who work for large organizations are feeling the pressure also.  The next round of layoffs seems to be right around the corner.  (How many of us personally know someone who has been laid off?)  The strain of the economy seems to fill many with a deepening, underlying, constant uncertainty – about nearly everything.  And such uncertainty, such insecurity, is very, very tiring.  Not to mention that financial pressures are equally very, very tiring, and many face these on a regular basis.

Two books to help you find your energy and maintain balance in your life...

Are there books to help?  I think so.  Two that I have read, neither “new’ but both still valuable, are The Power of Full Engagement and Getting Things Done:  The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.  Of course, everyone knows about David Allen’s best seller.  An entire industry has been created providing GTD aps for the iPhonie, following Allen’s principles.  He is so right that any thing that clutters the life or the mind is burden producing and burden sustaining.  Getting it off of the mind and into a place where it can be retrieved when needed is critical to one’s sanity, and energy level.  Here are a few key quotes:

• Almost everyone I encounter these days feels he or she has too much to handle and not enough time to get it all done.
• In the old days, you knew what work had to be done – you could see it.  It was clear when the work was finished, or not finished.  Now, for many of us, there are no edges to most of our projects.  Most people I know have at least half a dozen things they’re trying to achieve right now, and even if they had the rest of their lives to try, they wouldn’t be able to finish these to perfection.
• “This constant, unproductive preoccupation with all the things we have to do is the single largest consumer of time and energy.”  Kerry Gleeson.
• We all seem to be starved for a win.

The other book, The Power of Full Engagement:  Managing Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, may be less well known, but it is a great and valuable companion volume for Getting Things Done.  Consider these quotes:

• We live in digital time.  Our rhythms are rushed, rapid fire and relentless, our days carved up into bits and bytes.  We celebrate breadth rather than depth, quick reaction more than considered reflection.  We skim across the surface, alighting for brief moments at dozens of destinations but rarely remaining for long at any one.  We race through our lives without pausing to consider who we really want to be or where we really want to go.  We’re wired up but we’re melting down.    We survive on too little sleep, wolf down fast foods on the run, fuel up with coffee, and cool down with alcohol and sleeping pills.  Faced with relentless demands at work…, we return home feeling exhausted and often experience our families not as a source of joy and renewal, but as one more demand in an already overburdened life.
We walk around with day planners and to-do lists; Palm Pilots and BlackBerries, instant pagers and pop-up reminders – all designed to help us manage our time better.  We take pride in our ability to multitask, and we wear our willingness to put in long hours as a badge of honor.  The term 24/7 describes a world in which work never ends.
• Fatigue has a cascade effect – fatigue leads to negative emotions leads to muscular tension leads to lack of focus/concentration.
• We need energy to perform, and recovery is more than the absence of work.

I realize that we are too busy to read these books about dealing with the stress of being too busy.  But these quotes should whet your appetite while reminding us all that the problem of fatigue is real.  It will take a lot of effort to become effortless in our work and life and emotional balance.

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• You can order synopses of my presentations for both Getting Things Done and The Power of Full Engagement, at our companion web site, 15 Minute Business Books.

Interview: William A. Cohen

Cohen is founder and president of The Institute of Leader Arts. He is also a retired major general from the U.S. Air Force Reserve. After graduating from West Point, Cohen flew 174 combat missions in A-26 aircraft in the Vietnam War. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross with three oak leaf clusters, and the Air Medal with eleven oak leaf clusters. He has written 53 books, including The Stuff of Heroes, The New Art of Leadership and The Art of the Strategist. His latest is A Class with Drucker, based on his graduate study under Peter Drucker’s supervision and his personal friendship with him. He also has an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago as well as M.A, and Ph.D. degrees from Claremont Graduate University.

Here is a brief excerpt from my interview of Cohen:

Morris: How would you characterize Drucker’s teaching style?

Cohen: Mostly he lectured in what is probably the traditional European style, except that he used no notes whatsoever. Occasionally he would ask questions, and he would also welcome them, but most of his answers were not a few short comments. He used stories to illustrate his points as in his lectures. However, you had to listen closely as his stories in response to a question because, at first, the stories seemed to have no relevance whatsoever. This would lead to another point that seemed to have no relevance either and this could go on and on. However, if you stayed with him, sometimes for as long as an hour, he would suddenly tie everything together. It was only then that you realized that he felt that you needed to hear everything in order to understand fully the point he was making. He gave no tests, but he had us write a number of short papers for a course. He graded every single one of these papers himself, never with any help from graduate assistants.

Morris: At that time, graduate students and their professors (including Drucker) took dinner breaks and gathered at a cash bar in the Faculty Club, then dined together before resuming classes. There must have been some especially lively conversations.

Cohen: This was always true. However, it wasn’t a cash bar. The drinks and the meals were free. Unfortunately this practice had to be abandoned, probably because of the potential liability of the university in case of an accident as tired executives, who had had one or two drinks, drove home after a difficult day both at the office and in the classroom. However, I never knew anyone to abuse this and these conversations were useful with all of our professors, not just Peter. However I think he enjoyed them more than most and several of “the lost lessons” in my book came from these conversations. Peter knew who he was and what he could do. He was always observing, analyzing, and drawing conclusions. He considered himself a constant student. A classmate once asked him how he could make so many accurate predictions about the business world. “I listen,” he responded. And then with a typical, humorous, but no doubt accurate Drucker comment, he added: “To myself.”

If you wish to read the complete interview, please contact me at interllect@mindspring.com.

The Unpredictable Future – Forecasting the Unpredictable

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. (Abraham Lincoln, 1862 Annual Message to Congress).

I just re-watched Joel Barker’s newest version of his video, The Business of Paradigms.  (See Bob’s interview with Joel Barker from our blog here).  His example of a company that was “sent back to zero,” thus lost out in the midst of a paradigm shift, was Motorola, which switched from analog to digital a few moments too late, and Nokia took over the cell phone market.  The video is a little dated — and now Blackberry, and of course the iPhone, are creating the most buzz, though Nokia is still quite healthy.  Who will lead five years from now?  No one knows for sure.  The life span of a product’s success and dominance has never been as potentially short as it is today.

I recently presented a synopsis of the book Get There Early (Get There Early:  Sensing the Future to Compete in the Present; Using Foresight to Provoke Strategy and Innovation by Bob Johansen, Institute for the Future) to an association of Grantmakers meeting in Sante Fe.  Their world has been greatly effected by the economic downturn.  And one thing was clear – the better you can prepare for the unpredictable future right around the corner, the better you will be able to weather the storm.

Here are some key quotes from this thought-provoking book:

• In today’s marketplace, we have little buffer time between our decisions and their impacts.
• The most intense pain that leaders experience, the pain that keeps them awake at night, is caused by not being able to solve problems…  Every profession has become a dangerous profession – every leader is at risk, and the range of risk is growing.
• For corporations, get there early means finding new markets, new customers, and new products ahead of your competitors…  For non-profits, get there early means anticipating the needs of your stakeholders and sensing emerging issues before they become overwhelming or before others who don’t agree with your issues have taken a commanding position.  Get there early means seeing a possible future before others see it.  Get there early also means being able to act before others have figured out what to do.

Johansen does not claim that we can predict the future.  In fact, he argues that we cannot do so.  But he does strongly recommend forecasting the future.  Here’s another quote:

• A forecast is a plausible, internally consistent view of what might happen.  It is designed to be provocative…  We don’t use the word prediction…  A prediction is almost always wrong… A forecast doesn’t need to come true to be worthwhile.

Johansen recommends a three step approach – foresight, insight, and action.  He includes a number of examples.  Here’s one about Wikipedia:

The Story of Wikipedia’s Encyclopedia for the World

• Foresight:  Much of the world will have limited access to knowledge
• Insight:  The world needs a free, open-source encyclopedia
• Action:  Create Wikipedia

His (Jimmy Wales) ambitious goal is to include “all human knowledge.

I have read (and presented) other books that deal with possible futures coming around the next corner, especially The Extreme Future by James Canton.  He wrote:

Everyone needs to think differently about the future, a future that is riddled with change, challenge, and risk.  It is a new kind of future, not the steady plodding of progress from one moment to the next, punctuated by brief bursts of innovation that characterizes much of history.  Now we face a post-9/11 future.  The future of our lives, of our work, of our businesses – and most of all, the future of our world – depends on us gaining a new understanding of the dizzying changes that lie ahead.  I call this future-readiness.

But the warnings about the potential dangers are everywhere around us in the business book universe.  Gary Hamel in The Future of Management reminds us:

Every business is successful until it’s not.  What’s disconcerting, though, is how often top management is surprised when “not” happens.

And, of course, Nicholas Talib in The Black Swan warns us that there is always another Black Swan waiting to be revealed:

Just imagine how little your understanding of the world on the eve of the events of 1914 would have helped you guess what was to happen next.

So, back to Johansen.  His advice:  forecast!  Create future scenarios, or use some other technique to paint a picture in order to think about the future.  The more possible futures you can imagine and prepare for, the better you will be able to survive that unexpected future that will most assuredly arrive.

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• You can order synopses of my presentations for The Black Swan, The Extreme Future, and The Future of Management, at our companion web site, 15 Minute Business Books.  I hope to add the synopsis for Get There Early to the site soon.

Q #239: What are “platforms for collaboration”?

In an article published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Satish Nambisan (Associate Professor, Lally School of Management & Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) focuses on three types of platforms for collaboration. Here are brief excerpts:

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EXPLORATION: What’s the Problem? Most social issues or problems are multipart puzzles. But when pieces of the puzzle—however minor those pieces may be—are missing, partners may not understand what, exactly, the problem is. Exploration platforms bring together diverse stakeholders so that they may frame problems fully and accurately. Once the partners develop a shared definition of the problem, they can start working on solutions.

EXPERIMENTATION: What’s the Solution? Businesses routinely put their innovations through a rigorous process of technical and market testing before they introduce them to the market. Yet most nonprofits and government agencies skip experimentation. Consequently, many social innovations go more or less directly from idea to implementation. Yet as social innovations cross boundaries and increase in complexity, experimentation will become the cornerstone of effective problem solving.

EXECUTION: Giving the Solution Away. Once collaborators have defined their problems and identified their solutions, they can use execution platforms to roll out their findings. The most effective execution platforms build and distribute solution templates. Templates capture the core elements of a solution, but can be easily customized to fit different contexts. They also help partners coordinate their efforts. (For an example of an execution template, see “Art Mimics Art” on page 61 of this issue.)

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Here is where you can download the complete article:

http://www.ssireview.org/images/articles/2009SU_Feature_Nambisan.pdf

The Big Four of The Big Rich were Outliers

The Dallas Morning News has a terrific summer book club blog going about The Big Rich by Bryan Burrough.  They published an e-mail I sent, comparing a key finding/observation from Malcolm Galdwell’s Outliers to the life and success of the Big Four tycoons:   Cullen, Murchison, Richardson, and Hunt.  I speak of the work ethic of the big four, but then talk about the “luck” factor.  Check it out here — and read the rest of the posts about and prompted by The Big Rich.  It’s a nice and stimulating way to think about a very good book.

Q #238: What’s a “Milkshake Moment”?

That is the title of a book written by Steven S. Little in which he explains that “a Milkshake Moment is a brave action, be it big or small, that furthers the cause of growth in an organization. Milkshake Moments materialize when individuals understand the organization’s true purpose, honestly believe it is their job to fulfill it, and are given the tools and the freedom to make it happen.” These remarks remind me of what William L. McKnight, then CEO of 3M, said in 1924: If you put fences around people, you get sheep. Give people the room they need.” In stagnant organizations in which little (if any) room for initiative is provided, Little acknowledges that a would-be growth must possess “the guts to stand up and say, `This idea is contrary to everything we say we believe.’” That’s a Milkshake Moment.

I agree with Little that significant growth does not always require major changes. Last year, Toyota implemented more than one million ideas generated by its production workforce. Most involved minor refinements to improve quality or to eliminate waste. I hope that many of those who read this book are owners of small companies or work for such companies. I also hope that they read it carefully and, while doing so, think about all the opportunities they have each day to share a Milkshake Moment with fellow workers and, especially, with customers. My final hope is that those who have such moments also share them with Steven Little by contacting him at www.stevenslittle.com.

Q #237: “Why should I care?”

I don’t know about you but I ask that question (to myself) every time I receive a telephone call, an e-mail, or “snail” mail from a stranger. Moreover, I have much less patience now than I ever had before. My attention span is now measured in seconds, not minutes. Communication experts estimate that (on average) each person receives about 2,500 “messages” each day from different sources (other people, print and electronic media, etc.). The result is “clutter” and what the experts characterize as “cognitive dissonance.” Information overload is a common.

So what?

Perhaps not much. Perhaps a great deal. Whenever you have important messages to send to fellow workers, customers, a spouse, other family members, and friends, don’t assume that they always receive those messages. And even if they receive them, don’t assume that they “get it” (i.e. understand your intended meaning). And if they “get it,” they will probably ask (to themselves) “What’s in it for me?”

Here’s what communication experts suggest:

1. Stop adding to the clutter by sending unnecessary messages; devote more attention to doing what must be done.

2. Send a message when the recipient is “there.” Timing is not always everything but it is VERY important. That is, send the message only after you have requested and received permission, and have the recipient’s attention.

3. KISSS: Keep the message simple and keep it short.

4. If there’s no reason for the recipient to care, the message this time will be ignored; worse yet, it may be resented as a waste of time and attention; and even worse yet, future messages will never get through.

Some Books Just Aren’t Worth Reading all the Way to the End

My wife’s mother read the newspaper.  I mean she really read the newspaper — from cover to cover.  (She passed away last summer). When she would visit us, in Los Angeles and later in Dallas, the Sunday paper was a big challenge for her.  She would sit in the chair, and tackle that massive stack of sections — much larger than the Sunday papers she received in her home town of Abilene, Tx.  It took her a long time, but she plowed through each section.  When she finished, she would let out a sound that was a cross between relief, accomplishment, and exasperation.  And she would say simply:  “finally!”

I thought of this as I read two posts on Andrew Sullivan’s blog, In Praise Of Not Finishing Books, springing from an article in The Washington Times by Kelly Jane Torrance, referencing Tyler Cowen, a George Mason University economics professor, from his book “Discover Your Inner Economist.”  (Read these here and here and here).

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

No matter what you choose, though, you’re bound to run into the same problem eventually: What should you do when, 20, 50 or 100 pages in, you realize you just don’t like a book?  You could spend your entire summer slogging through it. Or you could take the advice of a prominent economist who simply advises: “Give up.”  Tyler Cowen, a George Mason University economics professor, makes the suggestion in his book “Discover Your Inner Economist,” which shows how to use economic reasoning to improve your life. Scarcity is one principle — a lack of attention and time keeps us from being as cultured as we’d like.  We should ask ourselves if reading a book we’re getting little out of is the best use of scarce resources.

This is a pretty good principle to follow for a number of business books.  I have stated more than once that many business books are not worth reading — they are worth having read.  There is no virtue in reading for reading’s sake.  The virtue is in learning (I’m speaking here of reading books as part of our “work/development.”  There is always virtue in reading for enjoyment.  But most people choose authors other than business book authors for such reading). 

Here’s another quote from the article:

“Don’t slog your way through books just so your reading list will conform with other people’s ideas about what’s hot or what’s smart. Find the books that compel you from first page to last.”  Don’t take these readers’ words for it. A no less august reader than Samuel Johnson declared, as Mr. Cowen quotes in his book, “A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.”

This is one ofthe values provided by the First Friday Book Synospis.  We read the books, all the way to the end, so that you can save and invest your precious reading time for other books.  Or, we let you know that “this book” is worth the investment of your time.

I think the honesty of these articles is true, and  refreshing.  Some books really are worth “quitting on.”  (And no, I’m not about to name names or titles!)