Rigidity in War
War is not only about circumventing failure but also about defeating your adversary in a heroic fashion. In strategy, the element of structural organization is very consequential. There is nothing more immobilizing to a group than the appearance of disorganization. The sense of untidiness that comes with disarray is almost dispiriting to the members and the general morale of the group is inadvertently affected by the lack of structuring. The flowing, swift and versatile groups are the visionaries who are actually destined for triumph. If you have a propensity, as a leader, to overly restrain your group and attempt to interrelate every aspect of its development, you will simply bind yourself to what has been buried in history. That is to say, that forging a rigid structure that lacks adequate flexibility to adapt congruously to the conditions will only hold back the group. Rigidity in war is rather fleeting, its unbending nature will eventually collapse once it finds itself unable to bend any further. Furthermore, this characteristic generally lacks the balance and stability to preserve its composure amidst the conflict of war. Thus, the element of adaptability envelops more strength and command in the group.
Divide to Live, Combine to Fight
The principle: If you want to live; divide. If you want to fight; combine. The reality is that most people would, by preference, want to mimic a method than act unaccompanied. For it takes more nerve and self-government to take action without a safety net, discarding your fixation with recipes and mechanical reasoning. If you want to surpass the common people, understand that the quintessence of strategy is not a step-by-step system, it is deliberately being in a position where you have more choices to decide on than your adversary. Strategy is more about positioning and less about tying yourself to one favourable solution. Ideal positioning is having multiple alternatives at your disposal contingent upon how conditions unfold. Positioning connects well with having excellent foresight. If you lack the necessary prudence to think ahead of time in order to swiftly place yourself in the optimal position, you will either be late or you will fail to consider it. Foresight allows you to orient yourself carefully in advance, anticipating potential plots before they happen and being at the right time and place to hold the upper hand. In Sun Tzu’s Art of War, this position is termed ‘shih’.
It is of great importance for the superior leader and the developing warrior to acknowledge that recoursing to an inefficient stratagem is still more reasonable than negligence and passivity. Moreover, if the leaders await directives, an advantageous position will not be utilized under any circumstance. A real warrior knows when to set aside his assigned commands, this is the mark of sovereignty. For, the surest way to ravage self-control is by pampering your warriors and behaving under the assumption that they are indistinguishable. In doing so, you are too inviting and encouraging infighting. Triumph is the byproduct of control, instruction and superior quality. Shallow affability is simply inferior to success, forming vigorous relationships grounded in fortitude. The signification is simple: Rigidity makes you immovable, fluidity grants you diverse recourse and possibility.
Adaptability and Swiftness
To arrange your group for adaptability and swiftness, your structure must be pliable. Thus, you should partition your corps into distinct groups that are able to function and adjudicate independently. The morale of the crusade must be instilled in your group, making them impossible to stop or prevent. Identify and entrust the expedition and let the heroism of the group reveal itself. Napoleon had a strategy whereby he coerces his enemy to diverge his forces inadvertently. In doing so, he shatters their organization and forces them to split off. The difference lies in the structure, if your enemy’s body lacks versatility, segregation will be detrimental. You don’t want to find yourself in a condition where forced segregation is imposed on you by your adversary, you should structure your squad accordingly and avoid involuntary division.
Remember: Tell them what to carry out but not how to act. If you give people leeway, their creativity will confound you. It takes a certain audacity to moderately disengage and permit a degree of unpredictability. Nonetheless, through subdivision, reduced control will grant you movability, the apex accumulator. Your strategic aims, then, must be coherent to impart operations to multiple units within your group, letting them define the means to succeed. Make it entirely obvious to your group that counter-action to command is not insubordination. To sum up, inventiveness is of great importance, it must be inculcated and fostered in your men to make them more resilient towards the turn of events. Strength of character is resilience and independence, heroic properties of battle.
