Session #3. The Big View
The focus is Chapter 3: The Big View. How the Sun Tzu Teaches Us to See the World.
Assignment: Develop, sharpen, and write down a scenario in your life that you would like our study of the Art of War to help you with.
Your scenario can be any thorny situation — a simple goal, a recurring problem, or an ongoing campaign — where in your role as a leader you are trying to accomplish something and you experience resistance, up to and including outright opposition.
Note: It may be helpful to have two situations, a private one that you would like to "keep in your pocket" and one that you feel comfortable sharing with others here.
Reflections on Session #3.
The fives stages of the view of the Art of War can deepen the contemplation of your scenario and expose what you may be excluding.
Below are the contemplations we explored last class:
Interconnectedness – What important interconnected elements may you be excluded from your view of your scenario?
Conflict – By focusing on the conflict that you can see, are there other aspects of resistance and opposition that you may be missing?
Taking Whole – Are there important perspectives or objectives of others that are being excluded in how you are viewing your scenario?
Knowing – What do you not know about your scenario that might lead to a solution? How could you look in a different place if you wanted to know more? How might you look in a different way if you wanted to know more?
Victory – What solutions to your scenario can you imagine that lurk outside the normal places you look?
Do these questions shed new light on your view? If so, how?
Assignment: Develop, sharpen, and write down a scenario in your life that you would like our study of the Art of War to help you with.
Your scenario can be any thorny situation — a simple goal, a recurring problem, or an ongoing campaign — where in your role as a leader you are trying to accomplish something and you experience resistance, up to and including outright opposition.
Note: It may be helpful to have two situations, a private one that you would like to "keep in your pocket" and one that you feel comfortable sharing with others here.
Reflections on Session #3.
The fives stages of the view of the Art of War can deepen the contemplation of your scenario and expose what you may be excluding.
Below are the contemplations we explored last class:
Interconnectedness – What important interconnected elements may you be excluded from your view of your scenario?
Conflict – By focusing on the conflict that you can see, are there other aspects of resistance and opposition that you may be missing?
Taking Whole – Are there important perspectives or objectives of others that are being excluded in how you are viewing your scenario?
Knowing – What do you not know about your scenario that might lead to a solution? How could you look in a different place if you wanted to know more? How might you look in a different way if you wanted to know more?
Victory – What solutions to your scenario can you imagine that lurk outside the normal places you look?
Do these questions shed new light on your view? If so, how?
Views: 3
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Fran Lightsom on -
Reading Chapter 3, I am aware of how well the Sun Tsu view applies to my job as a low-level manager in an agency of the US Federal Government. I have my goals to achieve, and it often seems like the biggest obstacles are other parts of the agency (and other agencies) that are achieving their goals in ways that endanger my goals. Yet we are definitely all interconnected, and taking whole is clearly the kind of victory that would be lasting. Part of the problem in applying this view in my work will be dealing with co-workers who don’t feel like they are winning unless they are making somebody else lose.
-
-
Permalink Reply by Susmita Barua on
-
Fran, you are bringing up an important issue faced in workplaces of having 'honesty and integrity' compromised for the sake of expediency and achieving a goal. We see that everywhere in government, corporations, military, media and lately in the banking financial sector. I've worked in the local government and seen how fear of unpleasant consequences keep so many otherwise good workers unhappy and trapped into oppressive situations.
I faced discrimination being the only woman and immigrant. My senior male co-workers didn't want to share in the sense of enthusiasm or enterprise I had for my first long range planning job. I became the center of a storm or unconscious game of playing out old grudges and battles in some way. I was a greenhorn and simply didn't know how to handle that and had to quit to keep my sanity.
How do we make the switch or transition from the competitive territorial mind set to open, creative and collaborative mind set?
How can I stay honest and be creative in each situation?
/body> -
© 2012 Created by ALIA Web Team.
