I have not posted in a very long time. My intent was for this to be a topical forum, to present ideas and viewpoints in the Art of Strategy in practical experience. Without getting into too much detail, I have traveled an interesting path since my last posting. I graduated from ASU and started a job as a process engineer in health care. I have had the opportunity to fill a number of gaps in my skillset, mostly in facilitation and leading groups of people.

I have had the great pleasure of participating in a volunteer organization, Lean Portland, that has a vision and mission of Lean culture transformations for small nonprofit organizations. Lean Portland is a group of the most amazing Lean professionals I can imagine meeting. Each one of us has a skillset and experience that is very diverse, and we love to learn from each other almost as much as we love teaching others! We are truly more than the sum of our parts.

Recently we were invited to present the keynote at the Oregon Department of Human Services yearly Lean Academy conference in Salem, Oregon. Maria Grzanka and I paired up and developed a presentation based on our application of the Edgar Schein Onion Model to organizational culture and Lean initiatives, titled "Understanding Culture for Continuous Improvement". Maria is a terrific Lean professional at the Master Black Belt level that taught me a lot in this partnership. I have below embedded the video from my YouTube channel for you to watch if you so choose.

This leadership idea fits into the Art of Strategy model principle of "Know yourself, Know your opponent". We know from change management experience that people naturally resist change, therefore your opponent in this case is the resistance. Your path as a leader, then, is to know the people, know and understand their culture, and apply that knowledge to help them through change. The Edgar Schein Onion Model is one way, or perspective, an approach to understanding the people, the organization, and all the cultures in that organization.

Let us know what you think and feel about these ideas! Share your experiences and applications with our community so that we may all improve together. Thanks!

The Five Fundamentals

The Five Fundamentals are the core of the Art of Strategy. Learning to be aware of these and using them in everyday life is a challenge that will return great benefits. They are the basis for the Calculations. Each of these Fundamentals will be examined in greater depth in future posts. The Five Fundamentals are the trunk of the tree that splits into the branches. The application of these five ideas will help you to create harmony and end conflict with minimal loss of resources, for example, feelings as a resource in a relationship, time as a resource in your life. Here are the Five:

Goal (Tao)
Nature
Situation
Leadership
Art

If you are familiar with the Eastern concept of the Tao, you already know what it means. For those who are not, it is the Goal - of the person, relationship or organization; the worldview, the way life is looked at. It is the guiding principle that informs every action. For example, for many the main goal is to help others. So they may become health care providers, volunteers, maybe join the Red Cross or the Peace Corps. For too many of our political leaders, their Goal, or guiding principle, is not the same as the goals of the people that elected them. They are beholden to their party, their money providers - everything, it seems, but the people they are supposed to be beholden to. This is an easy way to observe the results of not aligning the goals of the organization. Our governement cannot act on what is best for the people of this country until they unite on common ground: respect for life.

Nature and Situation are closely related. Nature is that which defines the particular environment in which the challenge is found. Situation is the the elements of the circumstances we may find ourselves in. Nature may be physical features of the geography an army finds itself in, like mountains, crossing a river, etc. Nature may also be human nature, as in the emotional or spiritual nature of a person or organization. Situation is the number of troops in your army as opposed to the number in the opponent's army. Situation is the technology employed. Situation may be the particular people in the group you have to deal with at the moment. The leader must understand (calculations) both the nature and situation of the conflict. Resources can be completely wasted by acquiring and/or employing them incorrectly for the situation or nature. Don't send a person with strong anti-eastern-culture convictions to negotiate with an Eastern leader.

Leadership is the leadership skills that every leader should develop. They are the skills that bring together the organization. They are the focus that inspires. The four leadership skills are:

Detachment
Patience
Intelligence
Etiquette

We shall cover these in greater depth in future posts. They are worthy of separate discussion due to their importance in the execution of the plan. In the Fall 2011 semester we covered some ideas in Engineering Administration class that tie in here very well. It has been observed that most of our industry leadership finds it much easier to formulate a plan (strategy) than to execute the plan. This is the central idea: strategy without execution (tactics) is failure. Execution without strategy also leads to failure when the organization is executing plans that are not unified. The vision and mission statements of an organization are perfect examples of the stated Tao, or Goal, of the organization. It is the unifying principles that inspire and guide the organization to work together as one, to transcend differences and conflict.

Art is the tactics. It is the execution. A flexibility is necessary to adapt to constant change. A flexible art is more necessary now than ever, with the pace of change at a higher rate than ever in our history. It is not enough to observe or bemoan the change. We need to adapt and change. Fighting the change (life is change, we don't want to fight life) is a waste of resources. Change is inevitable. Not changing is stiffness and death, or obsolescence. In my classes with much younger people at university, I find the attention span to be much different than what I am used to. Not bad, not worse, just different. That is what allows me to adapt and change: choosing my perspective/perception. I could complain that the young people show disrespect by playing games and surfing the web during class. I could be upset or offended by the many times someone has asked me a question or engaged in conversation, then turned away to play or surf or talk to someone else during my second sentence. I have chosen to see this as a challenge, not a problem. Whether it is good or bad, disrespectful or a sign of some other perceived social malady is not relevent. My goal is to live effectively in this changing world, to stay young by being young, by being flexible. So I simply accept what is, find a way to work with it, and choose my perception so that I may subtract attachment to any personal philosophy that is ineffective in working with the change. Those attachments and the Three Arts of the Warrior will be the subject of a future post.

What we have discussed in this post is the beginning of acquiring the knowledge, awareness and skills to formulate the strategy, based on a good central goal (vision, mission), and with the ability and unity to execute the plan.

The Calculations

After the often arduous task of knowing yourself and knowing your opponent, and before entering into the conflict, you must analyze the conflict. Situation, resources, capabilities, motivations, all must be taken into account to determine the likelihood of success and the most efficient way to achieve goals.

Conflict in the self poses challenges that require great care in understanding as much of the conflict as possible. Knowing yourself and the nature of the opponent is critical to success. Knowing yourself is one of the most difficult paths a person will ever walk. Even as you are learning about yourself you are changing. Keeping up with those changes and choosing who you want to be at every particular moment can be very absorbing. One must try to keep the main Goal always in sight: respect for life. The specific goals you are achieving can then be realized. The bad habit or perhaps the inability to focus on studying can be approached and converted to more effective living.

Conflict with the environment is challenging because often, since you are in the midst of the conflict and trying to adapt, you do not see the conflict but the side effects. Poor health, depression, stress, etc. are indicators that something or things in the environment are preventing you from achieving harmony in your life. Only through knowing yourself can you understand what harmony is to you. Then this knowledge can be applied to determine what is upsetting your personal balance. Examples of environmental conflicts that can cause imbalance are: a teacher that teaches poorly or seems to have a personal agenda that does not include the students he/she is responsible for, or a stifling job environment. These can be overcome by applying leadership skills in changing the situation to the benefit of all.

Conflict with another is usually easy to perceive. The calculations usually point to compromise that allows and facilitates growth. Success in resolving non-negotiable conflict with another usually results in permanent change in the relationship. The resolution should be inclusive of the goals of both.

Conflict among leaders or organizations is all too often viewed from the perspective of beating or vanquishing the opponent. Only unskilled leaders work out their conflicts on the battlefield. The skilled leader rarely allows the conflict to progress to the courtroom or the battlefield. Skilled leaders achieve their goals through positioning well in advance of a confrontation, thereby avoiding the waste of resources that confrontation requires. This is where analyzing the conflict is so important. The goals of each opponent must be clearly understood so that the resolution answers both needs. Only in this way can a leader create a lasting triumph that is embraced by both sides. Conflicts in the Middle East provide an example of some of the most challenging conflicts. Where religion and tradition inform leaders instead of respect for life, the leader is unwilling to know his opponent sufficiently to create a lasting resolution through compromise and change. There can be no triumph (harmony) when leaders refuse change. Living things are flexible, and change and adapt. Old and dying things are stiff and unyielding: forces around them tend to break them, while the young and flowing simply bend and move with the change.

The next post will address the Five Fundamentals of Strategy, which will bring us to our focus: the Four Leadership Skills. These are the skills that we use every situation to develop . Before learning and using these Skills, you must be on a path of knowing yourself, and acquiring the ability to evaluate your situation and the nature of the conflict.

Know Yourself!

We have now acquired some ideas of what leadership is, and why we ALL need leadership skills. Let me recap a little here. We need to understand and implement leadership skills because we all have some types of non-negotiable conflict in our every day lives. Non-negotiable conflict leaves only three choices: change/resolve the situation, accept the conflict as-is, or leave the situation. Each of the three choices is a valid answer depending on each personal situation.

Take, for example, a conflict in the self. This can be a “bad ” habit. What is “bad”? Whatever presents an obstacle that prevents meaningful growth. This is a fancy way to say “bad” is anything that prevents or interferes with life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness.

Let's take something fairly obvious, like smoking. Smoking causes various types of sickness, including things like colds and cancer. The greater frequency of colds can be an obstacle to happiness, unless you enjoy the symptoms and the lost time that could be spent on something more fun. Cancer can certainly prevent meaningful growth and cause negative feelings in the self and in others. Let us apply the three choices here. Acceptance means sickness, death, negative feelings and the destruction of harmony. Leaving the situation means quitting. In this case, this is the same as changing/resolving the conflict. This means health, happiness, and restoring harmony. So how do we leave/change/resolve the conflict? By quitting. Can we use the implementation of leadership skills to solve this non-negotiable conflict? Yes!

The application of leadership skills here can empower you to get rid of the habit that causes the conflict. This is more involved than it sounds on the surface, because the root cause of the habit may be complicated and deeply ingrained. Rather than accept the habit and letting it take over your life, you can formulate a strategy to defeat your inner opponent and restore harmony in your life. Of course the same principles are applied to conflict with environment, conflict with another, and conflict among leaders.

How is this done? We will start with the most important and most basic requirement in formulating a winning strategy. Before anything else, before formulating the strategy, you must KNOW YOURSELF, and KNOW YOUR OPPONENT. If you do not know yourself, you cannot know your goals, your strengths, your weaknesses. No winning strategy can be formed without knowing these things. Harmony cannot be restored in your life if you do not know what “harmony” means TO YOU. Not to someone else, not to your friends, family, mother, father, adviser. TO YOU. You and only you can know yourself. There are some excellent systems for doing this. You can find, experiment with and choose the best one for you. (If you need help with that, please contact me because I have been of some help to many people on this path.)

Let us briefly discuss choosing your perspective. There are not problems, only challenges. There are no enemies, only opponents. Changing and choosing your perspective and perceptions is an effective tool to help overcome conflict. Choosing to see enemies and problems as opponents and challenges allows you and your organization to approach leadership skills as a way to understand, accept, tolerate, and facilitate. This is the way to create lasting triumph and harmony.

If you do not know your opponent, the same applies. You will never know how to resolve the conflict in a way that can create harmony for your opponent (and yourself) if you do not know the goals (motivations) of your opponent, the things that make your opponent tick.

Applied to the habit, knowing yourself means finding out why the habit was formed in the first place. You must come to a deep understanding of what triggers the behavior. Knowing your opponent means knowing why your inner opponent craves the habit. These things, among others, will help you to formulate a strategy that will effectively and permanently refocus your energies and change your situation, resulting in elimination of the habit and its negative influence on your life (harmony). Knowing yourself and your inner opponent will help prevent you from initiating the change when you are not strong enough to overcome the challenge. Losing the conflict will only strengthen the inner opponent.

Here we have advanced the idea of leadership, why we are all leaders, and the concept of knowing yourself and your opponent. The next post will present the Calculations, and discuss some central concepts of the Art of Strategy.

Fundamentals, Part 1

What is a leader? "A person who rules or guides or inspires others".
Leadership has been described as the process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task.
Alan Keith of Genentech states, "Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen".
According to Ken "SKC" Ogbonnia, "Effective leadership is the ablity to successfuly integrate and maximize available resources within the internal and external environment for the attainment of organizational or societal goals".

The point I want to make in this post is that every single person is a leader. At the very least, you provide leadeship to yourself in your everyday life. You may provide leadership if you are in a relationship with another person. You are a leader if you are a member of a family, especially if you are a parent. You are a leader in your group of friends even if you are not the "alpha". The same goes for leadership in your group at work. You do not have to be the manager to need leadership skills. Leadership in an organization is an obvious application of leadership skills. That is why I spell it out here and in the previous post. Leadership skills are needed by everyone, every day, to live the most effective life you can.

What is "the accomplishment of a common task"? What is "making something extraordinary happen"? What is "the attainment of organizational or societal goals"? This blog will be taking a "big picture" view of leadership skills. I will be posting ideas on leadership skills through the Art of Strategy, so I will be talking strategically. Strategy is the goal, tactics is the techniques to get there. I will be necessarily discussing tactics in ths blog, as the goal is no good without the means to get there. So, to answer the questions strategically, all three statements have one thing in common: they require a Goal. And what is the basic goal of all leaders? Money? Power? Maybe. But there must be a Goal that informs everything that the leader does, in his own life and in the surrounding lives. Read this carefully, because for a leader to continue to inspire, the Goal, or Tao, or culture, or Purpose, the original Goal from which all others follow, is of paramount importance.

 Peter Hill taught "One's base goal is respect for life so no matter what situation one finds oneself in, the way is clear". Please read that again. If leaders would refuse to swerve from that one principle, there would be no corruption, and greed would not be the source of the destruction of countless lives and livelihoods. Remember, we apply these principles to our own "backyard" first, and let the ripples of example spread outward. Think about that long and hard. "Respect for life". It is a far-reaching, all-encompassing Way for leadership. Everything I talk about here, all the ideas and techniques, will ultimately be tested by this Purpose: Respect for Life. It is what we all want and deserve in our leaders, and it is what we all should be using in our daily lives as leaders. There is no compromise here. All non-negotiable conflict must start with Respect for Life as the guiding principle.

It will become apparent that each and every person is already a leader in their own life. Some people are parents, and that makes them leaders in their family, providing leadership for growth and development. The family leaders must have an understanding of leadership skills so that they may provide the opportunites for their family (team) members for true self-actualization.
The next post will begin to introduce the basic concepts upon which we will build our ideas of leadership.

What is The Art of Strategy, and How Can it Help Me Develop Leadership Skills?

The Art of Strategy is about the knowledge and skills to end conflict and create harmony in your life and in the lives of others. These are the true leadership skills: to create win-win situations from each conflict, never to waste the resources of you or your opponent, to share so that both may benefit and rise up together.

The Art of Strategy is not about "winning" a confrontation. It is about the skills that allow one to overcome nonnegotiable conflicts. If the conflict has been allowed to reach the stage of confrontation, the leader has not done his job well or skilfully. The power  and respect that is acquired through conquest or destruction of an opponent is a false perception of leadership. It is not a life-affirming act that creates harmony. The 1987 movie Wall Street at once villified AND glorified the idea of leadership as conquest without regard for others.

This blog is about a different way. I invite you to a dialogue that will challenge and enlighten you to become a leader in your own life, creating harmony and growth among everyone you contact. The Art of Strategy Leadership Skills are applied to four encompassing types of nonnegotiable conflict:
-Conflict with Yourself
-Conflict With the Environment
-Conflict with Others (individuals)
-Conflict Between Leaders/Organizations

Each of the Leadership Skills discussions will center on the application of these ideas to these four types of conflict. In this way we can learn to change bad habits (conflict with self), repair a marriage or poor relations with a child (conflict with others), constructively change a workplace or life-place that is damaging to growth (conflict with environment), and provide enlightened, inspiring leadership to an organization through collaboration and development (conflict between leaders/organizations).

An Introduction

I learned The Art of Strategy from a master. It was one of the best learning experiences of my life. Since then I have practiced and taught The Art of Strategy to many people. I firmly believe that you "teach what you most need to learn" (Richard Bach). Therefore I have, for the last 14 years, taught Leadership Skills to whoever had an ear to hear.

I realized quickly about sixteen years ago that I was not a good leader. I found several very good mentors to whom I owe a debt of gratitude for their patience and selfless sharing of their knowledge and experience. One person who I have learned from by example is my father. I am grateful that I have been blessed with this person who has transcended many roadblocks in his own life and has always striven for nothing less than excellence. He has been a great inspiration to me, and a basis from which I embark on these discussions.