The Question of the Day

Before contemplating on the next strategic move, the successful strategist always asks himself, "Am I one or two move ahead or behind my competition?"

Q: Do you know what strategic principle would allow a competitor to be one or two moves ahead or behind their competition?

More Tools for the Mobile Strategist

Some of us have used Evernote to collect various dots of notes since 2008.  As a note-collection organizer, this program is technically superior to the practice of dumping everything into a MS Word document or a text file.

The learning curve is less than five minutes.   It is available for Win, Macs and other mobile devices.  

Free e-book
Click here for a free user e-book (5.9 MB). It is available as a pdf format, iPAD, nook, etc. Use the password makeuseof. 

Side Note  

Compass360 Consulting Group was not compensated  for endorsing this tool.

#

Competing in the Information Economy: The Role of #3

#3

"I am #3.  I don't try hard at all. ..."  - The Nameless Strategist

In the information economy, the seat holders of the #1 and #2 position are always in flux. Both of them are always stressed.  The number three seat holder  is just focused on achieving quality while maintaining an above average lifestyle.

The Compass View 
Every personality is different. In terms of achieving professional status,  there is no absolute rule for everyone. However, we believed that it is better to compete with diligent and intensity instead of regretting it. 

The goal of number three is to becomes the ultra class expert who can quietly advise while performing like the number one seat holder.    ...  There is no long-term future for those who are too caught on the action of the game.  

What is the exception to this rule?  Do you know what it is?

The Dao of Strategic Assessment

This is what happens when you have amateurs who practiced the "one input = one output" type of analysis

Good strategic analysis is about understanding the specifics behind the inputs.  ... The scary part is that there are some senior executives and  some senior project managers who do not believe in detailed-based situational analysis.  ... By practice,  their main concern is the result, not on situations and specifics.

Be aware of the aim of your strategic assessment approach. You must also ensure that your data is sound and solid.

The Psychology of Competition

In some terrain of competition, there is always a sense of hatred between the competitors. It really means that there is a denial of deep respect and envy. In some situations, they wished that they can behave like them.

The best approach is to focus on your objective while being mindfully aware of what your competition is doing.  This would enable you to see the Big Tangible Picture of one's endeavor. 


The Process of Building a Big Tangible Picture 
Script your objective, the approach, the tactical specifics from start to finish, and every significant intelligence about your competition.  Build a mind map  of your Big Tangible Picture. Then, focus on connecting every relevant point. 

Once the completeness of the Big Tangible Picture is assessed, the successful strategists usually understand their possibility of succeeding.

Preparation Precedes Performance (4): Strategizing a Worst Case Scenaro

In an extreme setting, the successful strategist usually have a "Go" bag that is "steady and ready." We presumed that you have prepared your EDC bag or your Go bag for this type of scenario.

Other than the usual laptop, the safety cable, the memory sticks, the ethernet cable, the external hard drive, and the head set, what other items are sitting in your Go Bag?


Do you have the proper gear for this scenario?  ... The answer is not in your copy of the Art of War!

Following is an abridged list of gear that sits in our Go Bag: 

• a LED flashight;
• a long sleeve t-shirt shirt; 
• a full water bottle; 
• a swiss army knife;
• a Gerber's all-purpose gear tool;
• some food bars; and
• a portable radio.

In a chaotic setting, it is important to know when to be strategically mobile and when to be strategically fixed.  Being mentally and strategically prepared before the chaos become pertinent. To stay ahead of the chaos, becoming light, aware, agile and mobile is the most relevant step.

Side note
In a future post, we will talk about the principles of strategic and tactical planning and the principles of preparation.

The Compass Rule of API (3)

Assess, Position Influence.  That is what most people instinctively do.  They really do not observe, orient, decide and act.  It is an intellectual myth. Those who do, are dreamers or armchair intellectuals who have no sense of mindful awareness. 

Assess, Position and Influence

Assess
After observing their strategic situation and its connection to the Big Tangible Picture, most relevant field strategists assessed their chances  of prevailing before making a decision to commit their time and resources.  This stage also determines where they must positioned themselves before the act of influencing. 

Position
The Position stage is based on the Big Tangible Picture (BTP), their orientation, their disposition and their decision.  The Compass strategists now plan and prepare for the influence.

Influence
The Influence stage concentrates on the conceptual output from the positioning.  [ ...]

If the influence does not work, the strategists return to the assess stage.  Does it sound easy and obvious?  

There are more steps and detailed specifics to our Assess, Position and Influence process.  We will cover that and how it connects to the Grand View, Strategic View and the Tactical View in our future book.

Side note
Those wanna-be "Art of War" cult armchair strategists and weekend warriors should spend some serious time re-reading the classics and mindfully  experience what some of those  strategic classics were striving to say.  Reading the right translations is the first step.   Seeing how it works in real time is the challenge. Embodying the principles requires a certain process model and a unique sense of perception.  

Fwiw, visiting Asian restaurants and learning bad martial arts are not going to improve their strategic skills.

Defining the objective of the situation and the tactical approach to match it is quite difficult.  Building the means to connect the modes to the tactical approach is the grander challenge.

So, is the answer in your copy of the Art of War or PMI's Book of Knowledge?  

Be the professional that you aspired to be, read the Seven Strategic Classics.  Understand the schema of the Big Tangible Picture is the first step.

Summary
"Psychology is Strategy."  - Wang Xu (a paraphrase)


Successful strategists are focused on seeing the Big Picture and not losing the war while the experienced tacticians directed their time, their attention and their resources on winning the significant battles.  Those who properly performed the steps of Assessing, Positioning and Influencing, are strategically efficient.  

One of the Compass keys is to understanding the behavior psychology behind the chief decision makers.

If you are interested in our unique process, please contact us.