The last one! Of all things Chapter XIII is about The Use Of Spies.
None of us should be working in an environment where we need to have people in place to give us information, that may work well in government or on television, but in real life groups need to work together and be able to have a modicum of trust. Still its no reason to let your back go unguarded, what spies really do is provide information, that is information you need for your project so if you don't have a handy spy or some hidden microphones, go and get the information yourself. Ask questions. Be curious and persistent, letting things go without getting an answer you need only causes trouble for you, and your project or your team. Keep an eye out for people in the know, and get to know them, not only because they may be nice, but they might give you a heads up in case something is coming up that you might need to know about. The more friends you have, the more you know.
Sun Tzu said: Raising a host of a hundred thousand men and marching them great distances entails heavy loss on the people and a drain on the resources of the State. The daily expenditure will amount to a thousand ounces of silver.
Armies are expensive, and complex to hold together and maintain. So are large groups and environments, having them just for the sake of being able to say you have them does not solve any problems. I'm not sure what a thousand ounces of silver costs nowadays, but its probably more than most people have budgeted, so count yourself lucky you don't have to carry all that silver around.
Hostile armies may face each other for years, striving for the victory which is decided in a single day. This being so, to remain in ignorance of the enemy's condition simply because one grudges the outlay of a hundred ounces of silver in honors and emoluments,
As said previously, many times, pre-modern armies would only fight if the conditions were good and they had positioned themselves properly, except of course in surprise attacks. But if the choice came to maintain something large and expensive just for the sake of being able to use it someday, or to pay once for something that would solve the issues quickly, what would you choose? I'd got for the solution I can get quickly, but I hate to waste money and while I can be a packrat, I don't like to do it at work when I can probably use the space for that someday solution for a beer fridge.
Thus, what enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is FOREKNOWLEDGE.
It's always about information,or at least being able to know, or predict, what will happen. Good Project Managers make this look easy, I still don't know whether its from some sort of psychic ability or some weird sense of things from experience.
Now this foreknowledge cannot be elicited from spirits; it cannot be obtained inductively from experience,
Ok, so much for those ideas!
Knowledge of the enemy's dispositions can only be obtained from other men.
A ha! Direct observation, or at least some good reports. Can you say things like Status Reports or Milestones? I can.
Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain intuitive sagacity.
Just sending one in without clear instructions or a goal doesn't help anyone. You have to know the information you need sometimes, or look for the gaps in your own knowledge to see what you might need. Or better yet, are there documentation holes that people have brought up, or have concerns on? Those look like good candidates for getting data on.
Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make certain of the truth of their reports.
Just because you asked a question and got an answer does not mean you have the right question and answer, be sure what it is you are looking for and asking. Sometimes the most important question is the one that has not been asked. Gaining data on projects is a tricky business, and sometimes you need large amounts of data that needs to flow up through various reports, and be paired with other data, to see where things truly are and the real state of affairs. Continually tune the data collection, people may ask for all kinds of data, and often just because someone in an important role asks for that data in a specific form does not mean that they know what they want. Question it, see if something else satisfies, see what they are looking for, it could be worth improving the current data collection to add this, or it could be a complete waste of time.
Finally number 13 done...sorry its taken a long time, I hope at the very least some questions have been sparked, I don't pretend to have all the answers but this was an interesting exercise for me as well.
Thanks for reading!
None of us should be working in an environment where we need to have people in place to give us information, that may work well in government or on television, but in real life groups need to work together and be able to have a modicum of trust. Still its no reason to let your back go unguarded, what spies really do is provide information, that is information you need for your project so if you don't have a handy spy or some hidden microphones, go and get the information yourself. Ask questions. Be curious and persistent, letting things go without getting an answer you need only causes trouble for you, and your project or your team. Keep an eye out for people in the know, and get to know them, not only because they may be nice, but they might give you a heads up in case something is coming up that you might need to know about. The more friends you have, the more you know.
Sun Tzu said: Raising a host of a hundred thousand men and marching them great distances entails heavy loss on the people and a drain on the resources of the State. The daily expenditure will amount to a thousand ounces of silver.
Armies are expensive, and complex to hold together and maintain. So are large groups and environments, having them just for the sake of being able to say you have them does not solve any problems. I'm not sure what a thousand ounces of silver costs nowadays, but its probably more than most people have budgeted, so count yourself lucky you don't have to carry all that silver around.
Hostile armies may face each other for years, striving for the victory which is decided in a single day. This being so, to remain in ignorance of the enemy's condition simply because one grudges the outlay of a hundred ounces of silver in honors and emoluments,
As said previously, many times, pre-modern armies would only fight if the conditions were good and they had positioned themselves properly, except of course in surprise attacks. But if the choice came to maintain something large and expensive just for the sake of being able to use it someday, or to pay once for something that would solve the issues quickly, what would you choose? I'd got for the solution I can get quickly, but I hate to waste money and while I can be a packrat, I don't like to do it at work when I can probably use the space for that someday solution for a beer fridge.
Thus, what enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is FOREKNOWLEDGE.
It's always about information,or at least being able to know, or predict, what will happen. Good Project Managers make this look easy, I still don't know whether its from some sort of psychic ability or some weird sense of things from experience.
Now this foreknowledge cannot be elicited from spirits; it cannot be obtained inductively from experience,
Ok, so much for those ideas!
Knowledge of the enemy's dispositions can only be obtained from other men.
A ha! Direct observation, or at least some good reports. Can you say things like Status Reports or Milestones? I can.
Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain intuitive sagacity.
Just sending one in without clear instructions or a goal doesn't help anyone. You have to know the information you need sometimes, or look for the gaps in your own knowledge to see what you might need. Or better yet, are there documentation holes that people have brought up, or have concerns on? Those look like good candidates for getting data on.
Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make certain of the truth of their reports.
Just because you asked a question and got an answer does not mean you have the right question and answer, be sure what it is you are looking for and asking. Sometimes the most important question is the one that has not been asked. Gaining data on projects is a tricky business, and sometimes you need large amounts of data that needs to flow up through various reports, and be paired with other data, to see where things truly are and the real state of affairs. Continually tune the data collection, people may ask for all kinds of data, and often just because someone in an important role asks for that data in a specific form does not mean that they know what they want. Question it, see if something else satisfies, see what they are looking for, it could be worth improving the current data collection to add this, or it could be a complete waste of time.
Finally number 13 done...sorry its taken a long time, I hope at the very least some questions have been sparked, I don't pretend to have all the answers but this was an interesting exercise for me as well.
Thanks for reading!
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