Translation edited by Ann Herrmann-Nehdi
The Book of Five Rings was written by M. Musashi, a famous Japanese Samurai, in 1645, at the end of his life. In Japan, the work is considered a classic of the Bushido School, also known as "The Way of the Warrior." Now it has been at last translated internationally and recognized by today's strategic thinkers as ranking with Carl von Clauzewitz's On War, the famous western treatise of strategy written in 1830 by this Prussian general.
The purpose of this article is to outline briefly: (a) the analogies of the Herrmann method with the oriental "way" in general and the Musashi book in particular; (b) the possible application of those principles to daily management.
Why and How to Interpret Musashi
The Samurai Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645) was one of the most renowned warriors of medieval Japan and a hero of the Nippon world. Kurosawa's epic film, "Seven Samurai", gives a good feel for this era in history as it depicts the Civil War between Japanese lords. The Samurai is a master warrior, (close to the western spirit of chivalry) who has dedicated his sword, lire, and soul to his lord.
The Book of Five Rings describes physical battles between individuals and armies. How could all of this relate to modern day business? As Clausewitz himself observes, both war and business represent “competition between two or more human organizations".
The truth of the paradigm becomes clearer as time passes and economists themselves clearly state: "Business now has become war", in today's periods of financial crisis and severe economic competition between firms, countries, and currencies.
The scope of war, however, must not be defined by the physical elimination of the competitor. It is more subtle. The scope of the warrior is more "political". The objective in victory is not to "kill". Musashi states: "The best warrior is one who wins without having to engage in battle."
The same is true in business. The objective is to win, not to necessarily kill the opponent. As Clausewitz states, "War is the continuation of politics by other means." The issue is ultimately political. Life is always competition, as Darwin stated.
The concepts in this book were not intended to be memorized in a "If A, then B " manner. Not a "How To" book, Musashi wrote that it was a "spiritual guide for those who wish to learn The Way", and that the person who masters strategy will "come to think of things in broader terms." Other- wise said, he or she would recognize how a concept that applies to one situation might be applied to another. Like many other oriental books, this one is based on the power of the metaphor (in a right-brain manner). Musashi himself uses metaphors many times. One example is when he compares the "way of the warrior" to the "way of the carpenter ." The tools of the carpenter are the weapons of the warrior in the same way that a telephone, plane, or computer could be considered the weapons of today's businessman. This book il- Iustrates what Herrmann calls the power of the. metaphor, and facilitates the transfer of these ancient concepts to the Modern world.
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The five intertwining rings symbolize the five chapter organization of this book: Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Void. Again, Musashi uses these terms as metaphors. The Earth Section: The initial foundation of the author's teachings through its basis in Oriental philosophy The Water Section: The principals of strategy, based on the concepts of mobility and flexibility The Fire Section: Tactics of physical combat The Wind Section: Musashi's comparison of his methods to other schools of thought on strategy and combat (wind in Japanese can also be thought of in the metaphorical sense of school, style, or tradition |
The Void Section: This section refers to the Buddhist notion of the "perfect void or nothingness", which is very important to the Zen branch of Buddhism (they call it interior illumination). Musashi highlights the need to research, train, practice, and learn through- out life and thus go beyond the simple exposure to his concepts in The Book of Five Rings.
The Role of the Number Five
The division in five parts is common in Taoism, the basis of Chinese and Japanese philosophy. This approach counts down starting with one (contrary to the way Westerners would).
One represents the TAO or the big picture: The world, the cosmos, human intelligence taken as a whole.
Two is the first in a series of divisions of the big One into two opposite, but complimentary parts-- Yin and Yang (feminine and masculine).
Three is the synthesis of one and two: The big picture (the TAO) along with Yin and Yang. A Western me taphor might be: thesis, antithesis, synthesis.
Four is the division of each of the two parts-- Yin and Yang--into two new parts.
Five is another synthesis: The whole and its four parts.
The Tao states that from this ever important Jive derive the infinite number of diversified objects that make up the real world. This approach differs greatly from one that allows analysis to predominate. Here synthesis and the "big picture" are omnipresent.
Musashi and the Herrmann Model
The parallelism between Musashi's and Herrmann's methods becomes evident when approached this way. Starting with a whole, then dividing thinking style approaches into left and right, and then keeping the whole in mind, there is another division of those parts into two other modes--limbic and cerebral. Fina1ly, there is the whole-brain model which represents the synthesis of those four parts and which constitutes in itself, the fifth part. Both Musashi and Herrmann seem to be saying: To truly strategize, you need to consider a1l five aspects. Looking at just two is too simple, three is insufficient, four is better , but leaves out the big picture, which is five. More than five would be too detailed and complicated.
In both cases, five appears to be just right, not too much, nor too little, nor too complicated, nor too simplified.
Paul Valery: " A1l that is simple is false, but a1l that is complicated is useless."
Albert Einstein: "Everything must be made as simple as possible, but not simpler ."
Musashi's Five Problem Solving Approaches
In the book, the author identifies his five fundamental problem solving skills. These skills are very close to those identified by Carl Jung: Jung’s basic Diagram shown here organized as it relates to the Herrmann Model.
Musashi concludes this metaphor with the following recommendations: The warrior should learn to master each of the four approaches, one by one, and all together , then overa1l to be able to thus choose the best approach for a given situation. This is summed up in a beautiful phrase that reminds us that the sword is the principle Samurai weapon:
"Polish the two-fold spirit--heart and mind. Sharpen the two-fold gaze--perception and sight."
The Sword was considered by the Samurai to represent their very soul. Polish and sharpen refer to the daily care of the sword and in a metaphorical sense, refer to the daily care of the soul.
Just as the sword was the instrument with which the Samurai served his lord, the five problem solving skills are the instrument with which the modern businessman serves his company.
The Herrmann Model here serves as another tool toward the understanding of and refining of the weapon.
The development (polishing) and exercising (sharpening) of these abilities should govern the everyday life of the manager or prospective manager:
Sensation: Collecting day-to-day information by direct observation to obtain the necessary data for one's work.
Feeling: The recognition/understanding of others' desires, motivations, values, and attitudes.
Thinking: The systematic and logical evaluation of these two kinds of information (above) through the use of rational reasoning.
Intuition: Inferring what will happen from unobservable facts and using one's own perception of what is observed and actually known about a given situation. Here, Musashi advises: "Don't be too preoccupied with details."
How to Overcome the Peter Principle
The more left-brained approach (thinking/ sensation) is important for non-managerial, technical positions such as engineers and computer programmers. In contrast, sales and human resource people use the right- brained (intuitive/feeling) approach to determine and respond to the needs and feelings of others.
The latter approach becomes more and more important the higher you climb the management ladder and in team leadership where the leader must be able to empathize with his collaborators in order to be effective. This approach is required in middle and upper management where it is necessary to get the big picture and respond accordingly.
As the Peter Principle states: In the organization, people rise to their level of incompetence. This occurs daily because high performance in a job may earn an employee a promotion into an upper level job that he or she cannot do well and that is where the person's career tops out.
This is well explained by the whole-brain approach. New positions often need new problem-solving approaches. At the top, a CEO would need all four of the previously listed approaches, or at least surround himself with a staff that represents al} of the approaches.
Understanding and Making Use of the Environment
In the chapter in which Musashi's topic is "Depending on the Place", the author underlines the need to understand and exploit the competitive environment as a whole, i.e., to see the big picture. For a General, this environment would consist of geography, topology, weather, local populace, etc. For a businessman or particularly a CEO, environment consists of social, financial, economical, technological, legal, and political circumstances. Many military or business campaigns are a failure because their leaders have not carefully observed, actively evaluated, and correct I y responded to the actual environment.
In this chapter, Musashi emphasizes the need for feedback. An archer can obtain immediate feedback on his aim, and of any disturbance such as wind, by watching his arrow in flight. The invisibility of a gunshot, however, denies the shooter similar information. Too often, large decision-making bodies are subject to "paralysis by analysis" because of the amount of detailed information they have to manipulate. By the time corrective action is decided, the situation has changed and it is too late. In a rapidly changing world, small, composite whole-brain decision-making groups are : more effective than big ones.
Reaching the Perfect Void
In the Buddhist religion, reaching the perfect void is considered "the perfection of the perfection." Through Musashi's book, it can be approached in two ways:
First, in a strategic decision-making position, the Samurai must have a personal detachment from his fate and must avoid all perceptual distortions.
The Samurai must not have a given attitude or a predisposition to respond to a given stimulus in a pre-conceived manner. In Kendo (Japanese fencing), an attitude refers to the position in which the sword is initially held: An attitude facilitates certain jabs and cuts, but precludes others. So, a mental attitude permits only a limited range of responses. It is a defensive way of behaving, not an offensive one. Musashi states: "I dislike attitudes. In my Way, there is something called attitude / non- attitude. This means adopting the proper attitude to defend the situation at hand, then changing position if the situation changes. Moreover, Musashi criticizes the Kendo school which prefers a certain weapon--the long sword. A good warrior is able to win a contest with any kind of weapon: long sword, short sword, spear, bow and arrow, etc. Musashi laughs at the poor Samurai who has to fight in a confined space (house, forest, etc.), with his long sword.
Today's management celebrates the so-called "delegative leadership style", or relationship- oriented approaches. But these approaches can be inappropriate in certain situations. The true manager, following Musashi, should, on the contrary, know and practice all the management styles: directive, non-directive, participative, delegative, task-oriented and relationship-oriented and be able to choose between them (a whole-brain approach).
Second, Musashi warns: The good warrior must have a "resolute acceptance of death if he wants to live." Worrying about "saving one's life" is also an "attitude" (a defensive one); and that preoccupation can keep him from fighting properly. On the other hand, the Samurai who does not worry about losing his life, will keep his mind perfectly detached from this prejudice and will be able to win the battle more easily.
In the same way, a businessman, too preoccupied with saving his position or corporation places himself in a bad position to achieve that goal. He will not have the mental flexibility to perform effectively toward that end.
If the warrior proceeds by casting aside these two preoccupations--life and death and success or failure--nothing at all can better prepare his mind.
This thinking connects with the advice of a specialist in negotiation: a winner is a man who knows what will happen if he loses; a loser is a man who knows only what happens if he wins.
As Musashi concludes, "Learning the Way of Strategy is part of The Way itself. Everybody must consider himself not as a master , but as a student of The Way. All life long, he must observe, train, and practice."
These concepts and metaphors are only a few samples of this rich book--barely an introduction. Read it with the whole-brain concept in mind and learn even more!
REFERENCES
1. Musashi, Myamoto. The Book of Five Rings. Overlook Press, Woodstock, NY: 1974. Translation by Victor Harris. French edition: ed. Belfond: 1986
2. Von Clausewitz, Carl. On War. Penguin Books, London: 1986
3. Boorman, Scott A. The Protracted Game. Oxford University Press: 1969
4. Jung, Carl. Psychological Types. London
Louis Timbal-Duclaux is a designer and trainer of courses on writing al EDF (ELECTRICITE de France). The author already published "Creative writing" and "Efficient Note Taking" ( Rctz.). Both works take into consideration what we now know about the brain and brain dominance.