Sun Tzu’s Work Algorithms

1. What state interest is really at stake?
2. What harm follows from acting?
3. What harm follows from not acting?

Convert impulse into a formal inquiry about necessity, proportionality, and consequence.

decision-necessity memo; state-interest register

Mistaking prestige for survival produces avoidable conflict.

1. Where is legitimacy or moral cohesion strongest?
2. What time/weather/season favors action?
3. What terrain, command, and discipline make execution feasible?

Score the situation across legitimacy, timing, terrain, leadership, and organization before selecting a course.

five-factor worksheet; comparative readiness table

A neat scorecard can conceal uncertainty if the factors are treated mechanically.

1. Where are we stronger and weaker relative to the other side?
2. Which advantage matters in this specific arena?
3. Which apparent strength is irrelevant?

Translate absolute assets into relative, situational advantages and disadvantages.

comparative advantage matrix

Counting resources without context produces false confidence.

1. What would make victory likely before contact?
2. What condition must be created first?
3. What risk remains hidden behind confidence?

Delay decisive commitment until preparation, position, and opponent incentives favor success.

pre-battle viability test; go/no-go brief

The phrase can become arrogance if leaders imagine certainty where only probability exists.

1. What can be preserved?
2. What can be converted instead of destroyed?
3. What future option must remain open?

Design outcomes that reduce resistance while preserving people, institutions, resources, and legitimacy.

preservation ledger; damage-limitation plan

Preservation can be misread as weakness if communicated poorly.

1. How long can this be sustained?
2. What hidden cost grows with time?
3. What termination condition exists?

Attach resource clocks, fatigue indicators, and exit criteria to every strategic commitment.

duration-cost model; exit criterion

Leaders often underestimate compounding cost because early activity feels like progress.

1. What do we know about ourselves honestly?
2. What do we know about the other side?
3. What unknown would change the decision?

Build a two-sided intelligence picture before acting: own condition, adversary condition, and critical unknowns.

two-sided intelligence brief

Self-knowledge is usually harder than adversary knowledge.

1. What should be visible?
2. What should remain ambiguous?
3. What appearance will cause misallocation?

Separate internal truth from external signal and manage visible posture deliberately.

appearance-control plan; signal ledger

Deception rebounds when an organization begins believing its own mask.

1. Which fact must remain hidden to protect initiative?
2. Which fact must be shared to align action?
3. Who is harmed by over-secrecy?

Classify information by operational value, coordination need, and legitimacy requirement.

secrecy/disclosure map

Excess secrecy weakens coordination and accountability.

1. Who knows what we cannot observe directly?
2. How can claims be checked?
3. Which signals precede action?

Create a validated early-warning network without turning hearsay into certainty.

foreknowledge map; indicator watchlist

An information network can become rumor amplification if validation is weak.

1. Which channel has access?
2. Which channel has motive to distort?
3. Which independent channel can cross-check?

Use multiple source types to reduce single-channel dependence.

source-diversity matrix

Source diversity does not guarantee truth if all channels share one hidden bias.

1. What does the ground permit and forbid?
2. Which route or chokepoint changes the problem?
3. What human terrain matters?

Read physical, institutional, social, and informational terrain before selecting a move.

terrain-state map; constraint brief

A map can seduce planners into ignoring morale and politics.

1. Where is resistance dense?
2. Where is the system thin?
3. What indirect pressure changes the balance?

Redirect effort from defended strength toward vulnerable dependencies.

strong/weak point map

This can become opportunism if moral and legal limits are ignored.

1. What action forces the other side to reveal or move?
2. Which move gives us initiative?
3. What response do we want to induce?

Set conditions that channel the opponent into predictable, costly responses.

initiative-capture sequence

Over-shaping can become manipulation without control over second-order effects.

1. Where must effect concentrate?
2. Where should visible assets disperse?
3. What will make the opponent divide attention?

Use focus internally and dispersion externally to create local superiority.

concentration-dispersion plan

Dispersion without command cohesion creates fragmentation.

1. What must be stable?
2. What can be surprising?
3. What pattern should be broken?

Build a repeatable operating base and rotate indirect moves around it.

direct/indirect rhythm sheet

Novelty for its own sake destroys discipline.

1. What speed is useful?
2. What fatigue does it create?
3. Who is being left behind?

Set tempo to seize advantage while preserving logistics, attention, and cohesion.

tempo/fatigue gauge

Speed becomes self-harm when it outruns supply and judgment.

1. Which route preserves optionality?
2. Which route commits too early?
3. Which movement changes the opponent's choices?

Design movement to expand your own choices and shrink the opponent's.

choice-architecture map

Movement can become pointless motion if it does not change choices.

1. What principle is non-negotiable?
2. What method must change?
3. What previous success is now dangerous?

Separate enduring criteria from adaptive tactics and revise the method accordingly.

variation memo; exception register

Adaptation becomes drift when the principle is forgotten.

1. What signal marks the window?
2. Are we ready before it appears?
3. What happens if we wait?

Predefine triggers so action is prepared when conditions align.

trigger list; opportunity clock

False windows invite rash action.

1. Which ground makes success impossible?
2. Who benefits if we accept the contest?
3. How can we reposition without losing face?

Decline contests that lock the organization into structural disadvantage.

unfavorable-ground refusal memo

Refusal requires explanation or it will be mistaken for fear.

1. Who decides?
2. Who executes?
3. Who may veto?
4. What is the intent if communications fail?

Clarify authority, intent, delegation, and boundaries before action.

command-intent card

Strong command becomes brittle if it suppresses feedback.

1. What must be standardized?
2. What must remain flexible?
3. How is performance measured?

Translate strategy into procedures, drills, reporting standards, and review.

method manual; standards checklist

Excess procedure suppresses initiative.

1. Which behavior should be rewarded?
2. Which behavior must be stopped?
3. Are incentives creating perverse effects?

Align rewards and penalties with mission, discipline, and restraint.

incentive calibration sheet

Harshness without justice breaks trust.

1. What is the one sentence intent?
2. What ambiguity will appear in execution?
3. Who needs confirmation?

Write orders that state intent, constraints, and decision rights plainly.

order-clarity brief

Over-explaining can bury the decisive instruction.

1. Why should people follow under hardship?
2. What injustice corrodes trust?
3. What purpose unifies?

Protect legitimacy internally before demanding external performance.

cohesion audit; legitimacy note

Moral language can become propaganda if actions contradict it.

1. Can the objective be achieved by position, alliance, negotiation, deterrence, or timing?
2. What conflict can be dissolved?
3. What is the cost of visible victory?

Look first for non-battle solutions that settle the strategic problem.

non-battle option set

Avoidance can become procrastination if the problem is real and urgent.

1. What could spread beyond intention?
2. What neighboring system is affected?
3. Who controls the stop signal?

Treat fire, anger, publicity, and escalation as propagation risks.

propagation-risk pre-mortem

Leaders often underweight irreversible effects.

1. What can be converted rather than wasted?
2. What treatment creates future cooperation?
3. What guardrail prevents abuse?

Design victory to incorporate useful resources, knowledge, and people without cruelty.

conversion ledger

Conversion without accountability can reward wrongdoing.

1. What must be true for this plan to work?
2. What evidence would falsify it?
3. Who disagrees?

Run an explicit red-team on assumptions, incentives, and blind spots.

assumption challenge memo

Red-team theater is useless if dissent cannot change the decision.

1. What does enough look like?
2. What condition triggers withdrawal or settlement?
3. What post-conflict order follows?

Attach exit criteria to the initial decision, not to exhaustion later.

exit-criterion card

Exit criteria can be ignored when sunk cost becomes identity.

1. What worked?
2. What failed?
3. What should change next time?

Convert each case into a lesson file with principle, exception, and warning.

after-action note; doctrine patch

Memory becomes myth when failures are omitted.

1. What domain is being analogized?
2. What does not transfer?
3. What ethical boundary changes the lesson?

Translate principles into business, law, cybersecurity, or leadership only after naming the limits.

analogy-limit note

Bad analogies turn strategic wisdom into cliché.