Finally, you have your military methods.
They shape your organization.
They come from your management philosophy.
You must master their use.
Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, Chapter 1, Section 1:30-33
The Art of War calls this element of a position, “military methods,” but we can think about it more broadly as “competitive strategy.” However, before looking at how we compare those specific methods, we need to better understand what this basic element of “methods” in every position is and what it does.
The Concept of Methods
We say that the Ground is the source of resources, but what makes any stuff valuable? The answer is our methods. The universe creates all kinds of stuff. Methods are how we make some of that stuff valuable. There is not a lot more of that natural raw stuff in the world today than hundreds of billions of years ago, but there are a lot more things of value and resources because we have learned how to access and use more stuff.
People who say resources are limited are fools. Resources are limited only by the creative powers of our minds. The more people there are, the more creative power we have on the planet. We are not just consumers but creators and producers. We can transform raw stuff into value and resources. We never know all that is possible. Methods can even create new ground, ground like the Internet, which provides even more resources. This is what we mean by saying we are created in the image of a Creator.
We call the methods that create resources by many names: processes, systems, techniques, skills, tool, machines, factories, and know-how. Tools and factories are simply stuff shaped into forms that utilize our methods. Everything that creates value is a method. Every method is part of a larger system. We call these systems families, businesses, marketplaces, and societies.
Methods are situation specific. Different sets of skills address different types of problems in creating value. A doctor doesn’t know how to design a house. A pilot doesn’t know how to make cement. A cement factory doesn’t produce furniture. A car factory cannot make televisions. Every form of value requires a very different set of tools and methods. We have hundreds of thousands if not millions of specific types of different methods in our world.
Yet, all of these different methods can be compared. Similar sets of methods can be compared to see which is the most cost effective, which create the best quality, and which are the most easily improved. But even very different forms of methods can be compared. Some skill sets are easily mastered. Others take a lifetime. Very different methods can learn from one another, cross fertilizing ideas from one skill set to another. Technology from making printers can be applied to building houses. Technology from satellites can help us drive cars. Factories, in general, can learn from each other in terms of quality control and inventory management.
Competitive Methods
The ancient methods of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War appear to have been written in the context of military competition, but they can be easily applied to any competitive arena. Studying the ancient Chinese, I always had the sense that this was intentional. Unlike all other books on strategy, Sun Tzu wrote his work without referencing the use of any specific weapons. There was only one weapon he was concerned with: the human mind. This is the only competitive weapon that has ever mattered because it is the creator of new methods, the infinite source of infinite resources.
But it can only discover what is made possible by the larger creation. All these methods first documented 2,500 years ago are being rediscovered and renamed today. How is this possible? Because our underlying psychology is unchanged. What Sun Tzu called listening, aiming, moving, and claiming, we now call the Scientific Method, the Sales Cycle, the OODA Loop, the Continuing Improvement Process, and so on. Each is the same method applied to a different arena of skills. The same is true of all his other strategic tools.
This entire competitive system is built on the simple method of making comparisons. It can be simplified into twelve sets of choices where alternatives must be compared. What must we compare?
We compare our positions with our goals to find our mission and direction.
We listen in those directions with our mission in mind to find our sources of information.
We listen to those sources to discover our positions relative to the positions of others.
We compare those positions to identify their relative weaknesses and strengths.
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