Sun Tzu's Warrior's Rules -- for Winning Productively

At the heart of Sun Tzu’s strategic system are two ideas: 1) that strategic positions are created from a natural balance of forces and 2) that we can leverage those forces to “win without conflict.” This article explains the balance of forces that we describe as "complementary opposites" (complops), which Sun Tzu based on the Chinese philosophy of yin-yang.

The principle of complementary opposites says that seemingly conflicting forces are actually two necessary sides of the same system. In the West, we have taken a more deterministic and reductionist view of systems, but Plato was the first to recognize that these linear methods have natural limits. The only way to get beyond them is the “dialectic” of seeing the deeper truth that resolves an apparent conflict. As the modern physicist, Neils Bohr put it, “The opposite of a fact is falsehood, but the opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth..”

Many sciences such as physics and chemistry depend on the idea of equilibrium. The ancient Greeks call the concept of a balancing point as stasis. Sun Tzu's strategy is similar, seeing all strategic positions existing as a balance or stasis between opposing natural forces, the most basic of which is production and competitions. Our world is changing as the balance between these forces shifts.

A Limitation of Our Perceptions

One way to illustrate this concept is using the Necker Cube shown to the top right of this article. When you look at this cube, it has a way of shifting perspective, looking as if one face is the front, then another. Complementary opposites says that this is the shifting nature the deeper reality of many elements of competitive situations but people are uncomfortable with this duality so they settle on one way of seeing the complexities of a situation as "correct."

For example, some people look as situations and see it as full of problems. This perspective isn't wrong, but it misses key aspects of the situation. We can also look at the same situation from a different perspective and see it as full of opportunities. Again, this view isn't wrong, but it also is incomplete. To make either of the labels work, we must filter out some elements of the situation. In this illustration, we block some of the lines of the cube, but competitive situations, we ignore key elements of our position. The truth of the situation includes all its elements, which require us to master the skill of shifting seeing its problems and opportunities as one. To do this, we stop asking ourselves the wrong question, which "face" of the situation is paramount, and instead we focus on the elements and their connections 1.3 Elemental Analysis).

Many Balancing Forces in Sun Tzu's System

Production and competition are only two of the many balancing forces in Sun Tzu's model. Strategic positions exists in a complex environment of many such balancing forces. We make progress, not by fighting the current balance of forces, but by leveraging these forces to advance our position. These forces include the balance of subjectivity and objectivity, weaknesses and strengths, problems and opportunities, creation and destruction, conflict and cooperation, unity and focus, ground and climate, costs and benefits, decisions and actions, opponents and supporters, facts and opinions, advantages and disadvantages, and many more.

The Nature of Complementary Opposites

Complementary opposites are not simply two separate forces in opposition to one another. They are two halves of a single system, two sides of the same coin. One creates and feeds the other in an endless cycle, like breathing out and breathing in. Each half of the system is necessary and indispensable to the other. Each side not only complements the other but completes it.

Arising from the Yin Yang Philosophy of ancient China, we use the idea of complementary opposites to analyze the dynamics of all competitive systems. Situations changes as the balance between the forces of different complementary forces shifts back and force. Subjective viewpoints Decisions necessitate actions, which in turn require new decisions. Less obviously, strength arises from weakness and weakness from strength.

The Dynamics of Balance

The value of complementary opposites is that the concept teaches us to leverage natural forces instead of fighting against them. In seeing the balance of the forces in competition, we avoid the mistake of seeing one half of the system as good and the other opposing half as bad. All systems inherently include both good and bad aspects, benefits and costs. We cannot stop destruction without also stopping creation. We cannot preserve the status quo and still have change for the better.

The dynamics of the competitive environment are created by the shifts back and forth, balancing these forces. Being large, for example, has certain advantages but so does being small. As the size of an organization increases the advantages of size do not increase as fast as its disadvantages. Growth is followed naturally by decline. The same is true off all complementary opposites. No half can remain too dominant for long as the system naturally balances itself.

The Power of the Concept

Sun Tzu's strategy makes situations easier to understand by creating simplified models of inherently complex situations. Dozens of different complementary opposites are used in the mental models of strategy. This models simplify our understanding of the processes so we can think about them more clearly.

Good strategy is possible only by understanding the dynamics of complementary opposites. We cannot fight the forces of nature. We can only take advantage of the opportunities that the larger environment creates. Opportunity creation is only seen clearly through the perspective of the shift between complementary opposites. Over time, these shifts create trends and cycles that we can use to our advantage.