Stratagem #3: Cohesion (Sun Tzu Series)

This is third installment of my Sun Tzu Stratagems series.

Stratagem #3: Cohesion

Cohesion – it’s an essential ingredient of any successful team, group, unit or formation. Without cohesion, no group of people can effectively and efficiently function and work towards a common goal. Therefore, building and maintaining cohesion is one of the most important tasks of a leader.

Cohesion can have many a form and mean different things. It can mean morale of the troops, trust between the members of a unit and its leader (Einheit), the integrity of a team. A well-disciplined team has strong cohesion, so does a squad with high esprit de corps. As with foreknowledge, it has different levels of detail and the meaning varies from aspect to another.

If a commander can command and control his troops as if commanding a one man, then the troops and the leader have a strong cohesion. And strong cohesion leads to victory as Sun Tzu says, those whose upper and lower ranks have the same desire are victorious^[1]; and if you presume on order, disorder will arise^[2], meaning that when one’s unit is cohesive, it can create artificial disorder amongst the enemy. As I mentioned in the last post about foreknowledge when talking about the five things one must evaluate before crossing the sabres, the leaders and the people must share the way, a common goal or purpose in order to be successful in war.

The Way means inducing the people to have the same aim as the leadership, so that they will share death and share life, without fear of danger. — Sun Tzu^[3]

Morale is one aspect of cohesion. One should attack, when enemy ch’i, or energy flow is low but only if and when one’s own ch’i high^[4]. Good warriors know that the time to fight is when it is easy to prevail; when the capacity of the troops to pull together persistently and consistently in pursuit of a common purpose, the victory, is high; when the troops are well supplied and have received quality training; when the leadership can effectively harness the potential of the troops and use it wisely and not attrite it in the heat of the battle. When troop morale is high, the leaders do not deplete it and the enemy is in position where its morale and energy flow is low (no supplies for last five days, poor or no communication between dispersed units, unable to mobilize and mount any counter-strike, etc.), the cohesive unit is ready to strike and win the battle.

Therefore the victories of good warriors are not noted for cleverness or bravery. Therefore their victories in battle are not flukes. Their victories are not flukes because they position themselves where they will surely win, prevailing over those who have already lost. — Sun Tzu^[5]

Discipline is an another aspect of cohesion. A well-disciplined force does not fear the battle. As it is said, “If soldiers do not practice day to day, on the front lines they will be fearful and hesitant. If generals do not practice day to day, on the front lines they will not know how to adapt.”^[6] When one practices the fundamentals daily, one will be agile, swift, precise and lethal when the battle arrives, and not sloppy, slow and clumsy.

A cohesive team has high esprit de corps, the fighting spirit and pride in their unit. It is not easily distressed by the enemy, the situation on the battleground or the environment as it possesses high morale, its members have mutual trust or Einheit and is well-disciplined with sharp skills and high adaptability, ready for battle.

Cohesive teams and business units

How do we describe such an elite military unit in business world or any other organizational context? Let’s try to examine some of the aspects of cohesion and what high cohesion might mean in each aspect.

Team morale
When morale of a team (eg. software development or sales team) is high, the individuals on the team tend to persistently and consistently support each other in pursuit of a team objective. Team members are more eagerly willing to work together, they feel that their contribution is valuable to the team, the organization and their client or society as a whole, and the team composition appeals to the members.

Trust between leadership and people who make things happen
High trust between leadership and people is built (or destroyed) through common experiences. People trust that the leaders make the right choices and decisions for the well-being of the people and the company. Leaders trust that people buy into their causes and carry out their decisions the right way. All parties have a common outlook towards business problems that the company faces. Leaders feel that they have a good Fingerspitzengefühl or fingertip control at the organizational level.

Integrity inside an organization
Organization with high integrity cares and strives to do the right thing for all stakeholders. Such an organization often aims to be transparent in its actions and motives, and speaks honestly about issues to all stakeholders. Members of the organization don’t drop the ball on issues that are important and carry out their responsibility on all levels of taking care of customers of the organization, whoever they might be.

Disciplined teams
Disciplined teams accept accountability for results. They do not perform sloppy work and pride themselves of delivering great work to the next actor in a process even if they received a sloppy input. They work on correcting the root causes, not the symptoms of a failed or broken process. Disciplined teams often embrace the idea of kaizen, continuous improvement, and strive to eliminate waste from their processes in order to work ever more efficiently.

Teams with high esprit de corps
When the spirit of a team is high, the working environment is usually open and the members feel that the environment is fun to work in. Job security and the business outlook of the company often contribute to the high esprit de corps. During tougher times it’s essential to keep the spirit up so that the company is hitting on all cylinders no matter what the times are.

Epilogue

As we’ve examined cohesion, it is apparent that cohesion of any sized unit, team, group or formation effectively determines how well it performs under any circumstance and is an essential ingredient in team performance.

I did not purposefully give or propose any answers or thoughts on how to boost team morale or develop disciplined business units, because either I do not have the answers on a particular issue or the “right way” depends entirely on the composition of the team, the work culture of an organization and many other factors. Later on, I might elaborate on how we intend to achieve these lofty goals at Kisko Labs and hopefully then give some insights or ideas to think about applying in your own organizations.

Hopefully this gave you some new insights or points of view. I’m myself enjoying these reflections very much as they help me to clarify my own thinking, concepts and ideas.

Tomorrow’s the day of Surprise.

References

1. Sun Tzu, The Art of War, p. 106
2. Ibid., p. 128
3. Ibid., p. 62
4. Frans P.B. Osinga, Science, Strategy and War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd, p. 39
5. Sun Tzu, p. 117
6. Ibid., p. 65