Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 7: 10 "March ten miles for some gain, and two in three men will arrive."

Verse 7: 8 Numbers:

* 30 Miles
* Double Speed
* All Commanders Lost
* 90% Force Lost

Verse 7: 9 Numbers:

* 15 Miles
* Normal Speed
* Commander of the Vanguard Lost
* 50% Force Lost

Verse 7:10 Numbers:

* 10 Miles
* Normal Speed
* No Commanders Lost
* 33% Force Lost

Please double check my numbers for me, from each verse, and offer me any corrections if I still have any errors embedded, as I did yesterday. Yet, as you do, try to imagine the story. Feel the emotion. Master Sun gives us numerical truth here, and we must follow carefully.

One of the great failures of our education is that we have each, an English class, AND, separately, a Math class. The true understanding of each demands the translation from numbers to stories, from Math to English, and their reverse. What are the numbers in the story?

Shamefully, all of us don't think in numbers as freely as we think in words. Funny thing is that, if you look at our intellectual history as a species, it is almost impossible to refute that numbers are the real foundation of logical thinking. Words are numbers' children.

At least, if you check the historic record, you'll discover we have much older records of tallies and hatch marks for numbers, than we do of written words. All number systems show ancient signs of finger counting. Why is base 10 the most popular? 10 fingers.

Regardless of the history, the three verses we're considering, verses 8, 9 & 10, demand the free flow from word stories to numerical tables, back and forth. I can assure you; I will never forget what I learned, yesterday, from my attempts, my errors and corrections.

Walk through the table and you'll see that the first officer is both stupid and inexcusably ignorant. His losses are so great, I'd say off with his head. Verse 9's officer may not deserve beheading, but he must be demoted at minimum. Today's officer needs guidance, not demotion.

Don't get me wrong, the loss of one third of your force is fantastically serious. Yet, one can feel, in the 10 mile-march, the natural impulse to find the enemy and engage. That the enemy was too far out of reach, and the officer didn't know victory, yet, we understand.

So, what's all this to you? Why care to work this hard? There is a concept, a vision required, to make the application to the #MAGA movement. I believe it is the single most important, missing concept in our movement.

I call it: Small, High-performance MAGA Teams.

We've discussed this before, and will again, many times. If you'd like the conceptual layout, this is a great starting point:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuckman%2…

1) Form
2) Storm
3) Norm
4) Perform

To form a team is:

1) To be ready to lead
2) Dedicate oneself to perpetual study and application of leadership principles
3) Determine necessary missions
4) Dedicate oneself utterly to a single specific mission by deadline
5) Recruit followers
6) Commence action

We won't discuss stages 3 & 4 of team development today, but will look at #2, Storming, in a moment. First, I am proud to present my own business website as an invaluable, free aid to commencing leadership and team building. No dollar cost is attached.

TheConsgiliori.com

What you'll find there is a four-step journey in building both leadership and followership. I must emphasize that there can only be one true leader on a Small, High-performance Team. The dedication to true followership is fundamental, and greatly misunderstood in our culture.

Now let's look at stage two, Storming. No team can possibly gel into high-performance mode automatically, without conflict or dissention amongst its members. People do not automatically understand their own, let alone others' strengths and weaknesses.

I hate to load you up with too many textbooks, but the following is so germane, that I have to at least offer it for your consideration. Besides, the Storming stage is so well explained, here:

amazon.com/Wisdom-Teams-C…

Katzenbach & Smith's key term, here, is "working method." We might call it a "division of labor," but it is so much more. How do we bob and weave? More than who does what, how do we help each other, suppressing egos, giving all to the mission? It is NOT easy.

CORRECTION:

TheConsigliori.com

There is a single key each leader must discover for himself. What is an acceptable, understandable conflict, necessary to team development? As vs what is an unacceptable, obstructive conflict over which the team will likely fail to gel? Only the leader may decide.

This is to say, that during the Storming stage, the leader must choose who stays, who goes, and how to replace those lost. When learning how to recruit replacements, the development of constructive working methods and relationships grows. But that leads to Stage 3, Norming.

This is extremely difficult for Americans in general, and our own political movement in specific. We've all be trained to worship on the altar of leadership, foolishly being led to misunderstand the power and beauty of followership. And, for us, "organization" is a bad word.

Organization? Yeah, bad old Saul Alinsky. We have failed, as a movement, to see how to counter his extraordinary strategic and tactical guidance that so empowers our opponents over us. My basic response, as I study Master Sun, is that we must get over ourselves and organize.

Let me say it again. My recommendation when it comes to the #MAGA movement's response to Alinsky, is that we must develop BOTH leadership AND followership, into an organized structure of Small, High-performance MAGA Teams. This is the answer.

To finish up on today's Stage Two, Storming counsel, leaders must determine who stays, who goes, how the lost are replaced, and how to move from Storming into Stage 3, Norming. More on Norming & Performing will come soon. And be clear, there can only be one leader.

Now let's return to Master Sun's prophetic ratios. As a team leader, you must not push your team too hard, most especially when you do NOT have a crystal-clear victory plan. You must NEVER arrive on the field of fight WITHOUT having won already, beforehand.

The story problem meaning of "march ten miles for some gain" is that you've chosen the wrong goal, a goal too far, for the wrong reasons, just out of reach for your team. You're going to lose one third of your followers. Yet, Master Sun smiles here, finally, and comforts us.

To crack the code of his smile, a philosophy is required. Here it is, in two statements:

1) THERE IS NO DISHONOR IN FAILURE.
2) THERE IS ONLY DISHONOR IN FAILING TO LEARN FROM OUR FAILURES.

Allow me to fight EVERY other such formulation, most especially this one:

"There is no such thing as failure, only learning."

Nay, nay. If Master Sun teaches us nothing else, he teaches that failure is real. Yes, that we must fail in order to learn he considers obvious.

In giving us all the losses, from 30 miles at double speed, to 15 at normal, to merely 10 miles while still losing 1/3 of our force, he again reinforces the harsh, inescapable reality of the cost of failure. Failure is real. Fail to count the cost, and you will never learn.

The most transformational practice you will ever embrace as a leader is simply named Failure Analysis. Try to remember, we analyze failures for the sole purpose of learning how to win. The greatest Failure Analyst in history was obviously Master Sun. He is our inspiration.

A point of focus in required before we complete today's lesson. How do you choose your objectives, prior to recruiting your first follower? It isn't easy. You must consider options and possibilities. You must find a locus of action, local, regional, national?

My strongest, most passionate advice, however, is to center yourself and your leadership on the 10 MAGA principles I've listed so often in our discussion of Master Sun's advice. And, I boldly put forward my own book on topic:

amazon.com/America-First-…

1. Remember The Forgotten Americans
2. Rule Of Law
3. American Jobs
4. Quality Of Life For Every American
5. Heal Our Cities
6. Build The Wall
7. Make America Wealthy Again
8. Make America Strong Again
9. Make America Safe Again
10. Make America Great Again

As we continue to follow Master Sun's guidance, we'll draw closer and closer to the ability, as a leader, to convert those objectives into pragmatic action, leading a small team of dedicated followers to their realization over time. We'll do more. We will organize and unite.

It's not a complex vision. 100,000 small MAGA teams, blanketing our nation with the reality of transformation, both backwards and forwards. We must return to our founding principles. We must forge a new realization of those principles, stronger and better than ever before.

164 verses completed, 258 to go.

To return to previous sections in our #WarForAmerica2020 and #SunTzuForMAGA series, don't forget to head over to @WarForAmerica21. You'll find the digital table of contents for this series, there. Please retweet each entry you enjoy.