To be a master strategist
is like mastering any other discipline. Study the People that do it, study
the history, the science, and practice the
discipline until you get good at it.
Read all the books the other answers mentioned. Rommel, Jomini, Clausewitz,
Musashi, Sun Tzu. Machieveli, Micheal Porter. Herny Mintzberg, Pete Drucker
Max
McKeown. Harvard Business Review. All solid strategy resources.
Historian Ralph Zumbro has done some clever stuff.
Study Sun Tzu’s actual history, the wars he fought. Hannibal and Alexander
the Great. Belisarius if you have time.
Then read up Ford, Toyota, Steve Jobs, Ronald Reagan, JFK - Any disruptive
historical figure or organization that dominated what they did. Read
different
cultures for different perspectives.
You have to learn science, history, political science, philosophy - to know
what is possible. What science, engineering, and technology actually can and
cannot do; and more importantly how they do, so you can improvise or disrupt
them.
Study behavioral science, especially cognitive bias, decision making, deception
science, habits and triggers, so you can predict how people will think,
act, and react. That way one may learn to manipulate psychology to your advantage.
The “Japanese Art of War” - Great book by Thomas Cleary; that studies the culture
of strategy in Japan. Most societies do not have strategic cultures.
Cleary and Musashi are the only authors I’ve seen that show the offensive strategic
value of Zen. But it works.
Learn how to win by avoiding conflict, Learn how to win through win-win scenarios.
Get good at math, finance, and how to mathematically model stuff. These days that
may mean learning Python or how to code if not being scary with
spreadsheets. Operations research can give you an edge. The cold war was won by
economics; thanks to RAND doing the math and Reagan listening to the math.
He talked about star wars weapons, a thousand ship Navy, tricked the Soviets into
bankrupting themselves - not a small feat considering Soviet Russia in
the 1980’s rivaled the largest producers of oil in the history of earth (Google the
production charts on Google, it’s really impressive).
Speaking of math. You have to study game theory, lots of it. Make game theory
second
nature, add that to complexity theory, psychology, and behavioral
economics, with a good does of modern military science, and you should be able to
hit
90% at predicting what people will do, and manipulating them to your
advantage (or at least, that’s the performance metric attributed to Bruce Bueno de
Mesquita’s consultancy to the Pentagon back when it was new).
Go to the Association for Strategic Planning; Catch up on business trends in Agile
Strategy, Scenario Planning, Competitive Intelligence, Innovation,
Adaptability…
Get a Subscription to Stratfor - and see the difference in perspective when you get
your news from the analysis of geopolitical intelligence experts that
talk to people in languages other than English….
For a break - binge watch a hundred hours of Burn Notice - plenty of good examples
at
going outside the box to find a means to and end with limited
resources; if you like spy stuff and crime fiction.
To become a master strategist - you have to have the skills, knowledge, and
attributes
needed to quickly assess a situation and multiple opponents,
understand their psychology, wants, and needs; their strengths and weaknesses,
their
physical, emotional, and resource limitations, and how to use every
bit of knowledge, math, science, available resources and tricks to maneuver or
manipulate
them into creating the best possible outcome at the most
appropriate time.
When a more powerful nation with a huge army invaded the Kingdom that was Sun Tzu’s
patron… Sun Tzu knew he could not fight them head on, or successfully
defend his kingdom. So he attacked the enemies home land, sacked villages, attacked
cities, forced his enemies the abandon their invasion to instead
protect their homeland
Read up on Colonel John Boyd USAF. There is a good Biography out there, and a
couple
good books on his work. The guy literally wrote the book on air to air
combat now used by the Air Force and Navy Top Gun. He invented energy
maneuverability
theory, is the God Father of the F-15, F-16, and F/A-18 fighter
programs. And is debatably the intellectual force behind parts of the Goldwater
Nichols
act and much of the 1980’s reforms to the DOD, as well as modern
“shock and awe” tactics.
John Boyd is recent enough, and misunderstood enough that I may spark a heated
debate
simply by mentioning his name. But read up on his career - Because
all of his accomplishments were made as an outsider rule breaking maverick officer
that the Air Force hated every step of the way. He basically tricked
them into developing the F-16 when they didn’t want it. At his funeral the Marines
had their own section, while the Air Force sent one minor functionary
for due diligence. Popular outside of his organization.
John Boyd is a good example of a Master Strategist, that is very controversial
because
of who he was and how he did what he did. Everyone argues his
theories, but nobody argues his results. And that guy read a book a day for
decades,
crazy workaholic.
Strategy is what a strategist does. Recognize the truth, assess limited resources,
find
the strength in those resources, and apply that strength against
opportunities and weaknesses in whatever is between you and your desired outcome.
Knowing that things never going according to plan, anticipating that,
and achieving optimal results despite internal politics, the fog of war, unintended
consequences, mistakes, skilled opposition, and a unexpectedly hostile
environment. Strategy is knowing how to change the plan when things need to change.
In the end, most strategists specialize in a certain genre - business, politics,
military, marketing, digital, investment - because learning the tricks in
one setting is much easier and obtainable then combining a high IQ with an eidetic
memory that has mastered several different careers to really be a master
strategist in multiple settings. Of course if you memorize a few thousand books…
One could argue that the US Constitution and Bill of Rights is one of the best
strategic
plans ever devised, because it is structured in such a way that
it is still successful after well over 200 years. It accounted for people,
politics,
and the need to change while staying consistent. And it was made by
many. many people motivated by survival and ideals. And even then it only succeeded
through very hard strategic work on the people that executed that plan.
Keep in mind - at the end of the day, you are stuck with yin and yang. Your actual
ability will be defined by the challenges you face. Humans tend to play
to the level of their opponents. A hero is defined by it’s villains.
So if you want to be a master strategist, start trying things worthy of a master
strategist. Create opportunity where there is done, succeed at the
impossible, and accept that when you succeed, depending on the challenge - few if
any may recognize what you achieve, because recognizable victory is a
rare opportunity. Usually master strategists end up in situations so complicated
that nobody is sure what happened or who won. Like a good Referee who
enforces the rules so smoothly that nobody remembers what the referee did after the
game is over.
Potential and realized Potential are two different things. I hope you have it in
you.