Volume 1

This is Volume One (28 articles) of our Art of War Playbook. This first part of the Playbook focuses on Sun Tzu's concepts for understanding and evaluating strategic positions. Sun Tzu's powerful approach to winning starts with the concept that competition is simply comparison and what is compared is "a position," which is a combination of five key elements. The Playbook itself is the culmination of over a decade of work breaking down Sun Tzu's principles into a series of step-by-step practical articles by the Institute's multiple award-winning author and internationally recognized Art of War expert, Gary Gagliardi. Unlike most of Gagliardi's other books on The Art of War, this work does not follow the original work's structure, verse by verse. Instead, it explains the concepts described the quoted verses in a manner more familiar to modern readers. The original Art of War was originally written for military generals who understood the philosophical concepts of ancient China. Our Art of War Playbook is written for today's reader with enough descriptive material so that Sun Tzu's ideas can actually be used in everyday competition. It puts Sun Tzu's ideas into everyday, practical language as a book of instruction. Because of its size and detail, the Playbook is published in nine volumes. This is just the first volume. The topics covered in this volume are listed below: Playbook Overview 1.0 Strategic Positioning 1.1 Position Paths 1.1.1 Position Dynamics 1.1.2 Defending Positions 1.2 Subobjective Positions 1.2.1 Competitive Landscapes 1.2.3 Position Complexity 1.3 Elemental Analysis 1.3.1 Competitive Comparison 1.3.2 Element Scalability 1.4 The External Environment 1.4.1 Climate Shift 1.4.2 Ground Features 1.5 Competing Agents 1.5.1 Command Leadership 1.5.2. Group Methods 1.6 Mission Values 1.6.1 Shared Mission 1.6.2 Types of Motivations 1.6.3 Shifting Priorities 1.7 Competitive Power 1.7.1 Team Unity 1.7.2 Goal Focus 1.8 Progress Cycle 1.8.1 Creation and Destruction 1.8.2 The Adaptive Loop 1.8.3 Cycle Time 1.8.4 Probabilistic Process 1.9 Competition and Production 1.9.1 Production Comparisons 1.9.2 Span of Control