Learning

5 Ways to Win According to Master Sun

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Here are Master Sun's 5 ways of know who will will from The Art of War:

  1. THOSE WHO KNOW WHEN TO FIGHT AND WHEN NOT TO FIGHT ARE VICTORIOUS. Prioritize.
  2. THOSE WHO DISCERN WHEN TO USE MANY OR FEW TROOPS ARE VICTORIOUS. Allocate.
  3. THOSE WHOSE UPPER AND LOWER RANKS HAVE THE SAME DESIRE ARE VICTORIOUS. Align.
  4. THOSE WHO FACE THE UNPREPARED WITH PREPARATION ARE VICTORIOUS. Plan.
  5. THOSE WHOSE GENERALS ARE ABLE AND ARE NOT CONSTRAINED BY THEIR GOVERNMENTS ARE VICTORIOUS. Empower.

As you can see from their corresponding modern management principles, they still apply today. What would you add to the list?

What Did You Learn Today?

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I'm a big fan of the show Morning Joe. The show is on MSNBC, and since we don't have cable, the only time I get to watch it is when I'm traveling. Recently, I caught the end of the show and loved how they wrapped it up by having everyone share what they learned.

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I brought that idea back to the office, and for the last couple of weeks at the end of the day we each share what we learned. This week, someone on the team googled "What did you learn today" and discovered Rick Segel's blog post with that exact title. It's an excellent story about how his parents asked him and his sister that question every day. So good, in fact, that you should stop reading this and go read it right now.

Go on, I'll wait.

Wasn't that worth the extra two clicks?

For a brief moment in time, my grandfather answered the question "How you doing" by simply responding "better." See, he believed that everyday he learned a little more and was constantly getting better. Unfortunately, most people misunderstood his comment and thought he was recently ill and was just now getting better. After spending too much time having to explain his clever response, he eventually gave up on this subtle, daily sharing of his philosophy.

Like the way Segel's parents influenced his life, my grandfather instilled in me his "better" philosophy, and with this basic, little question I've discovered a great tool to get a little better every day. End it with, "What did I learn today?"