A prince needs trouble little about conspiracies when the people are well disposed, but when they are hostile and hold him in hatred, then he must fear everything and everybody. NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI, 1469-1527
The Termite. From deep within the structure of the house, the termite silently eats away at the wood, its armies patiently boring through beams and supports. The work goes unnoticed, but not the result. Any attempt to bend people to your will is a form of aggression. And in a world where political considerations are paramount, the most effective form of aggression is the best-hidden one: aggression behind a complaint, even loving exterior.
Personal Development Conversation
- Open discussions of how things are working
- 90 days is a good mark – how the employees are doing?
- Do not restrict to “Hard Skills” – The higher the employee rise, the more important “Soft skills”
- Adapting to The Boss style – 100% the employee’s responsibility
- Surface difficult issues – address them directly
- A proven strategy is to focus on early conversations on goals and results, instead of how to achieve them.
- Working at a distance – Over-communication
- The risk is greater of falling out of steps without realizing
- Establish clear and comprehensive metrics – The Boss gets a reasonable picture of what going on
The worst [military policy is] to assault walled cities. . . If your commander, unable to control his temper, sends your troops swarming at the walls, your casualties will be one in three and still you will not have taken the city . . . therefore the expert in using the military subdues the enemy’s forces without going to battle, takes the enemy’s walled cities without launching an attack – SUN TZU 400 B.C.
Gandhi and his associates repeatedly deplored the inability of their people to give organized, effective, violent resistance against injustice and tyranny. His own experience was corroborated by an unbroken series of reiterations from all the leaders of India – That India could not practice physical warfare against her enemies. Many reasons were given, including weakness, lack of arms, having been beaten into submission, and other arguments of a similar nature. . . . Confronted with the issue of what means he could employ against the British, we come to the other criteria previously mentioned; that the kind of means selected and how they can be used is significantly dependent upon the face of the enemy, or the character of his opposition. RULES OF RADICALS, SAUL.D ALINSKY 1971
90-Days plan
- Devise after some weeks – write it down – and seek buy-in from the Boss
- Specify priorities, goals and milestones – A contract between you and the Boss
- Sketching – divide into 3 blocks of 30 days – at each block have a review with the Boss
- 0-30 Days: Develop a learning agenda and learn to play
- Learning and building personal credibility
- Diagnose the situation
- Identify priorities
- Plan for the 31-60 days block
- 31-60 Days: Asses the progress of the first block
- Discuss the 61-90 days block
- 61-90 Days: By the end of it, The Boss, peers, and subordinates want to feel something new, something is happening
- 0-30 Days: Develop a learning agenda and learn to play
Ghandi’s opposition not only made the effective use of passive resistance possible but practically invited it. His enemy was a British administration characterized by an old, aristocratic, liberal tradition, one which granted a good deal of freedom to its colonials and which always had operated on a pattern of using, absorbing, seducing or destroying, through flattery or corruption, the revolutionary leaders who arose from the colonial ranks. This was the kind of opposition that would have tolerated and ultimately capitulated before the tactic of passive resistance. RULES OF RADICALS, SAUL.D ALINSKY 1971