 |
You enter the grounds and follow the Path of Victory.
Some people call this path Bushido, the Way of the Warrior. Others know
it as Kshatriya Dharma, the Right Conduct of the Warrior and King. As you
walk toward the Hall of Warriors, you are greeted by statues of Victory
and Pallas Athena. |
 |
Copyright notice: Photographs (Corel Photo Gallery)
. Image credits
and copyright
As you approach the gate, Livius and Flavius salute you:
"Hail, visitor! All who follow the Path of Victory are welcome here!"


You
enter the hall to find a man with a grey cloak and a white beard. He wears
a patch over one eye, and is accompanied by two ravens and two wolves.
Odin, the Scandinavian god of war, presides over the Hall of Warriors.
He carries the lance Gungnir: "This spear is the foundation of my power,
the power of any leader. I cut its shaft from Yggdrasill, the World Ash
Tree, the foundation of the world's order. The runes on the shaft speak
of truth to pacts, of absolute trustworthiness. There is an underlying
foundation to every organization, every society, every human endeavor.
We Westerners call it Natural Law. The Indians call it Dharma, or Right
Conduct. The Chinese call it Tao, and the Japanese call it Do: the Way.
This is what I, Odin, call Yggdrasill, the World Ash Tree. The leader's
authority comes from Natural Law, Dharma, or Tao."
"Natural Law is the foundation of the United States Constitution. It
is also the keystone of what Dr. Stephen R. Covey calls Principle-Centered
Leadership .The nation's founders created an organization, the United States,
to serve its citizens. They specified the nation's purpose in the Preamble
to the Constitution. Stephen Covey writes (1991, 292), "The Declaration
of Independence and the Constitution of our country define what we're about,
what we're trying to achieve, and why." This is the United States' special
heritage. It is not an accident of geography, language, or colonization,
but an organization with a purpose. "This was the first nation in the world
that was ever established on the basis of reason instead of warfare" (Campbell,
1988, 31)."
Frame Option
To navigate this page easily, a frame option has been provided. Click here
to summon Rossweise the Valkyrie. According
to Scandinavian mythology, the flickering Aurora Borealis was the flashing
of the Valkyries' armor.
Finally you see the company that has assembled in the
Hall of Warriors: two and a half thousand years of wisdom, intelligence,
and leadership in one place. You can visit, compare the Western
and Eastern Ways of War, or go to Odin's
Library. Or follow this link for a conversation with Odin.
NEW (10/18/98): The
Gallery of Warriors. Portraits of famous warriors.
Here are the current inhabitants of the Hall of Warriors:
Levinson (1994, ASQC Quality Press) The
Way of Strategy applies lessons from Clausewitz, Machiavelli, Miyamoto
Musashi, and Sun Tzu to modern business management.
Levinson (editor, 1998, ASQ Quality Press) Leading
the Way to Competitive Excellence: The Harris Mountaintop Case Study
uses Alexander the Great as its archetypical symbol for innovative thinking.
| Alexander
the Great 356-323 BCE |
|
The world's first well-known paradigm buster. As a boy,
he slept with Homer's Iliad under his pillow. Aristotle was his
teacher, and his role models were Achilles and Hercules.
Leading
the Way to Competitive Excellence: The Harris Mountaintop Case Study
uses Alexander as an archetype for overcoming paradigms, or self-limiting,
preconceived ideas. Alexander's intellectual heirs are Alexander
Suvorov and George S. Patton, Jr. |
| Carl von Clausewitz 1780-1831 |
|
Prussian general, author of On War (1831), which guided Western
military strategy for almost a century.
-
"Business is War": "Rather than comparing it [war] to art we could
more accurately compare it to commerce, which is also a conflict of interests
and activities; and it is still closer to politics, which in turn may be
considered as a kind of commerce on a larger scale" (Book 1, Ch. 3). That
is, business is war: a competition between organizations. Vince Lombardi,
the famous coach of the Green Bay Packers (American football team) said,
"Running a football team is no different than running any other kind of
organization-- an army, a political party, or a business. The object is
to win-- to beat the other guy." That is, football = war = politics = business
-
Clausewitz also told Lyndon B. Johnson why he would lose the Vietnam War.
"Wearing down the enemy in a conflict means using the duration of the war
to bring about a gradual exhaustion of his physical and moral resistance."
(Book 1, Chapter 2).
|
| Frederick II, "The Great," 1712-1786 |
Helmolt, H.F., ed. History of the World. New York:
Dodd, Mead and Company, 1902. |
After conquering Prussia, Napoleon visited the tomb of Frederick the
Great. Bonaparte himself admitted, "If he were alive, we would not be here." |
| Niccolò Machiavelli
1469-1527 |
|
Not a military leader, but wrote two valuable books on organizations:
The
Prince and The Art of War
-
On the need for commitment: "The best fortress which a prince can possess
is the affection of his people; for even if he has fortresses, and is hated
by his people, the fortresses will not save him; for when a people have
once risen in arms against their prince, there will be no lack of strangers
who will aid them." (The Prince) See Takeda Shingen
|
| Helmuth von Moltke 1800-1891 |
Duyckinick, Evert A. Portrait Gallery of Eminent Men and
Women in Europe and America. New York: Johnson, Wilson &
Company, 1873. |
Prussian Field Marshal, architect of Prussia's victories over Denmark,
Austria-Hungary, and France. See Hughes, Daniel J. 1993. Moltke on the
Art of War Selected Writings. Presidio Press, Novato, CA
-
On the United Nations, and its predecessor the League of Nations: "Some
have proposed to replace diplomacy with a permanent assembly of deputies
chosen by different nations to adjust the various international disputes
and interests and thus to prevent all future wars. ... I have more confidence
in the judgment and power of governments than in the Areopagus of delegates
selected by the peoples and international brotherhood or what has been
proposed in this direction, which is suited only to create Babylonian confusion."
(page 25, "The Nature of War")
Considering the League of Nations' ineffectiveness, and the UN's (mis)handling
of Bosnia and the Middle East, von Moltke was right. (Oxymoron of the day:
"UN-declared safe area.")
-
Eternal peace is a dream, and not even a pleasant one? "Eternal peace is
a dream, and not even a pleasant one. War is part of God's world order.
War develops man's noblest virtues..." However, he continues, "...who can
deny that every war, even a victorious one, inflicts grievous wounds on
all involved? Neither territorial gain nor billions in indemnity can replace
the dead nor offset the mourning of families." This echoes the admonition
in Chapter 12 of Sun Tzu's Art of War.
-
"If one wishes to attack, then one must do so with resoluteness. Half measures
are out of place. Only strength and confidence carry the units with them
and produce success." Also see The
Way of Strategy (pp. 83-85).
|
| Miyamoto Musashi 1584-1645 |
|
Famous Japanese sword master, author of A Book of Five Rings.
Miyamoto
Musashi [1584-1645], A Book of Five Rings, translation by Victor
Harris. Overlook Press, 1974, is a good reference. See also Levinson, 1994,
The
Way of Strategy . Miyamoto Musashi read Sun
Tzu's Art of War, and it certainly influenced him.
-
Weapon = tool (of competition).This lesson recurs in Western languages.
Hoplon
(Greek) means "tool," but a hoplite was a warrior. Armamenta (Latin)
means"equipment."
-
Similarities between Bushido and architecture (project management): Musashi
compares the Way of the Warrior to the Way of the Carpenter (architect)
-
Musashi also anticipated the Myers-Briggs personality types (thinking/feeling,
sensing/intuitive) centuries before Myers' and Brigg's birth. The Void
Book says, "Polish the twofold spirit heart and mind, and sharpen the twofold
gaze perception and sight." The sword was the soul of the samurai, and
polishing and sharpening were the critical operations in its care.
|
| George S. Patton, Jr. 1885-1945 |
|
American General, dynamic and aggressive strategist. The philisophical
reincarnation of Alexander the Great and Alexander Suvorov. |
| Sun Tzu ~500 BCE |
|
Chinese General, author of The Art of War. This is a short,
but outstanding, guide to managing organizations in competitive situations.
It contains lessons that apply to business and modern
statecraft.
-
If Kaiser Wilhelm had read it, Germany would have won the First World War.
The Kaiser wouldn't have interfered with General Falkenhayn's plan to bleed
the French and British Armies at Verdun. Verdun almost broke the morale
of the Entente.
-
If Hitler had read it, Germany would have won the Second World War.
-
Don't interfere with your field commanders
-
Treat conquered peoples benevolently, and they will join you. E.g. The
Ukrainians hated the Russians, since Stalin had killed 7 million of them,
but the Nazis treated the Ukrainians badly.
-
If Lyndon B. Johnson had read it, the United States would have won the
Vietnam War, or would have stayed out.
-
(1) Don't fight a protracted war (see Chapter 2 of The Art of War).
Also see Clausewitz
-
(2) You need popular commitment to wage war.
Available translations
-
Sun Tzu. 1983. The Art of War, translated by James Clavell. Delacorte
Press, New York (excellent, very easy to read)
-
Sun Tzu. 1963. The Art of War, translated by Samuel Griffith. Oxford
Univesity Press, Oxford, England (very comprehensive)
-
Sun Tzu. 1987. Sun Tzu's Art of War– The Modern Chinese Interpretation,
by General Tao Hanzhang. Translated by Yuan Shibing. Sterling Publishing
Company, Inc. New York
-
Sun Tzu. 1988. The Art of War, translated by R. L. Wing. ("The Art
of Strategy") Doubleday, New York
|
| Alexander
Suvorov 1729-1800 |
|
The one man who, at the end of the 18th century, could have stopped
Napoleon. He did beat Napoleon's generals Moreau, Macdonald, and Joubert.
Russian Field Marshal. Intellectual predecessor of General Patton. His
aphorisms on war show appreciation for the need for speed (Sun Tzu: "Speed
is the essence of war") and overcoming paradigms, or preconceived ideas.
-
On speed: "The enemy doesn't expect us, reckons us 100 versts away, and
if a long way off to begin with, 200, 300 or more– suddenly we're on him,
like snow on the head; his head spins. Attack with what comes up, with
what God sends; the cavalry to begin, smash, strike, cut off, don't let
slip, hurra!" (Tsouras, 1992, 31) "Swiftness and impact are the soul of
genuine warfare." (Tsouras, 1992, 399)
-
"A hard drill makes an easy battle." ("Train hard, fight easy.")
-
"The bullet's an idiot, the bayonet's a fine chap." (Underlying principle
of the Western Way of War: "Get in the enemy's face.") "Stab once and throw
the Turk off the bayonet. Bayonet another, bayonet a third; a real warrior
will bayonet half a dozen and more. Keep a bullet in the barrel. If three
should run at you, bayonet the first, shoot the second and lay out the
third with your bayonet. This isn't common but you haven't time to reload..."
(Tsouras, 1992, 23)
-
On overcoming paradigms: what if a scaling ladder was too short to reach
the top of a wall? "Bayonet into the wall– climb on to it, after him another
and a third. Comrade help comrade!" (Tsouras, 1992, 35)
-
On bureaucracies and large headquarters staffs: "Large staffs- small victories."
(Tsouras, 1992, 402)
Suvorov article in Military
History by Russell Isinger
NEW (1/7/99): page on Alexander
Suvorov. |
| Takeda Shingen 1521-1573 |
|
Japanese daimyo (warlord), respected leader of samurai. Killed by a
sniper while besieging Noda Castle. His war banner carried a short quote
from Sun Tzu's Art of War:
Swift as the wind
Silent as a forest
Fierce as fire
Immovable as a mountain
-
On the need for organizational commitment: "My castle is in the hearts
of my people." See Machiavelli
|
| Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of
Wellington 1769-1851 |
Duyckinick, Evert A. Portrait Gallery of Eminent Men and
Women in Europe and America. New York: Johnson, Wilson & Company,
1873. |
English Field Marshal, victor (with Blucher) over Napoleon at Waterloo.
Reference: Keegan, John. 1987. The Mask of Command. Penguin Books,
New York
-
On management by wandering around (MBWA, Tom Peters' term): The manager
should get up front where the action is, talk to the frontline people,
and see for himself/herself what's happening. The Duke of Wellington introduced
this management style during the Napoleonic Wars: he called it "taking
trouble." "[Wellington's methods] required a particularly intense 'managerial'
style- 'taking trouble' with the battle, as Wellington himself would later
put it. The general must make himself the eyes of his own army,..., must
constantly change position to deal with crises as they occur along the
front of his sheltered line, must remain at the point of crises until it
is resolved and must still keep alert to anticipate the development of
crises elsewhere." [Keegan, p. 149]
-
On concern for the welfare of subordinates: After the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo,
Wellington learned that many wounded soldiers had no shelter. He personally
rode thirty miles after dinner to order some officers to give up their
lodgings for the wounded. (They should have done so by themselves.) They
disobeyed him, which he discovered
when he returned the next evening, so he cashiered them. After the
capture of Asseerghur (1803), he sent stocks of his own wine to the wounded,
and he visited them in the hospital (Keegan, p. 160).
-
On treatment of local populations in wartime: Sun Tzu
discussed this in The Art of War, and Wellington practiced it (although
he had never heard of Sun Tzu; English translations were not available).
He forbade his soldiers to loot, and he bought goods from the locals instead
of taking them. When generals allowed their soldiers to loot, and "requisitioned"
goods from the populace, people naturally hid everything they had when
an army approached. When Wellington's army came, however, the people brought
everything they could sell to the marketplace. While the English had to
pay for the goods, they had no trouble supplying their troops. "Prices
were high but supply was abundant" (Keegan, 134). Even French peasants
sold their goods to Wellington's army
|
The Western and Eastern Ways of War
It is important to recognize the difference between the Western (European)
and Eastern (Chinese and Japanese) methods of waging competition. The Western
style, which comes from the Greeks and Romans, is confrontational, hard,
and decisive. "Get in the enemy's face" sums it up nicely. Greek warfare
had to be decisive because the typical soldier (hoplite) was a middle-class
or wealthy landowner who could not spend a lot of time away from his farm.
Both sides had the same problem, so they fought a decisive battle almost
by common consent. Their phalanxes would line up opposite each other on
level ground and charge each other. After about an hour of pushing, shoving,
and stabbing, one side would usually break and run. (There wasn't any halftime.)
The losers would ask for a truce to bury their dead, and the war was over.
The Greeks used contact sports like boxing and wrestling to overcome the
instinctive aversion to hand-to-hand fighting. "Harsh sports, fought for
a clear-cut result, reinforced the Greek military ethic…" (Keegan, 1993,
247). The goal of a "clear-cut result" influenced European military thinking
through Clausewitz' time and beyond. Today, the U.S. Military Academy requires
male cadets to practice boxing and wrestling. Male and female cadets learn
"combatives," a system of hand-to-hand self-defense. Everyone must participate
in a contact sport for at least one semester (Donnithorne, 1993, 40-41).
The Romans adopted this decisive style of warfare, and built on it.
The Romans usually began a fight by hurling the pilum, or javelin,
into the enemy ranks. Each soldier then drew his gladius, or short
sword, and got down to business. The Romans adapted their style of warfare
to the sea by equipping their ships with the corvus, or "raven"-
a bridge for grappling and boarding an enemy galley.
Asians customarily fought with missiles, and preferred not to close
with the enemy until victory looked certain (Keegan, 1993, 244). The Greeks
praised those who fought at close quarters, while denigrating archery.
Homer's Iliad portrays archers as ineffective or even cowardly,
while praising the spear fighters. Archery, even from the Persians, was
not very effective against heavy Greek armor.
However, the Eastern style of war as described by Sun Tzu is very effective.
The North Vietnamese used it to drive the United States from Vietnam, even
though their army could not meet the Americans on the battlefield. The
Eastern style is characterized by patience, deception, and waiting for
an opportunity. Tokugawa Ieyasu, who founded the Tokugawa Shogunate, said,
"If the nightengale won't sing, I'll wait until it does." He succeeded
Oda Nobunaga and Totyotoma Hideyoshi by serving them faithfully until they
died (leaving him with a large power base). Only then did he crush his
last rival, Ishida Mitsunari, at the Battle of Sekigahara. (See the advice
of General Wu Ch'i below.) James Clavell's Shogun
describes these events: Yoshi Toranaga is Ieyasu.
|
The Western Way of War
|
The Eastern Way of War
|
While in later clearer vision
I can sense the coppery sweat
Feel the pikes grow wet and slippery
When our phalanx Cyrus met
Hear the rattle on the harness
Where the Persian darts bounced clear
See their chariots wheel in panic
From the hoplite's leveled spear
Still more clearly as a Roman
Can I see the legion close
As our third rank moved in forward
And the short sword found our foes.
-From "Through a Glass, Darkly." George S. Patton, Jr., 27 May, 1922
|
When the enemy advances, we retreat!
When the enemy halts, we harrass!
When the enemy seeks to avoid battle, we attack!
When the enemy retreats, we pursue!
All warfare is based on deception.
Therefore, when capable, feign incapacity; when active, inactivity.
When near, make it appear that you are far away; when far away, that
you are near.
Offer the enemy a bait to lure him; feign disorder and strike him.
When he concentrates, prepare against him; where he is strong, avoid
him.
-Sun Tzu, The Art of War (Chapter 1, "Estimates"), Griffith,
1963
The Chinese general Wu Ch'i said, "One who gains
five victories suffers calamity; one who gains four is exhausted; one who
gains three becomes Lord Protector; one who gains two, a King; one who
gains one, the Emperor. Thus he who by countless victories has gained an
empire is unique, while those who have perished thereby are many." (Griffith,
1963, Appendix I, Ch. 1)
|
So which is superior? Whichever is most effective for
the given situation!
A Further Conversation with Odin
"There's, no instant recipe for success, no cookbook for ruling the world
or a market segment. Do you think it's easy being Battlefather, the god
of war and the ruler of ravens? Would you like a magic drink that would
give you the wisdom of the ages? I drank from Mimir's Spring, but I paid
a steep price. That's why I wear this eyepatch. To learn eighteen runes
of power, I hung from Yggdrasill, the World Ash Tree, for nine days. 'I
hung from that windswept tree, hung there for nine long nights; I was pierced
with a spear; I was an offering to Odin, myself to myself.… No one came
to comfort me with bread, no one revived me with a drink from a horn. I
peered at the worlds below; I seized the runes, shrieking I seized them;
then I fell back.…'" (Crossley-Holland,1980, 15-17). "It's easier for you,
and harder. You don't have to sacrifice an eye or hang from the World Ash
Tree, but you have to spend years learning and applying principles of leadership
and management. My friend Hachiman, the Japanese god of war, says that
learning is a lifetime activity. Only a dead person has nothing left to
learn."
"My sacrifice on Yggdrasill embodies the principles of the Hanged Man
in the Tarot. The Hanged Man symbolizes self-sacrifice, possibly for personal
growth. Pay attention to those ancient myths, legends, and old stories.
Like Ravana the Demon King of the Ramayana, you must believe them
just
enough. They provide valuable insights into human societies and organizations,
insights that stretch across millenia of history. I, Odin, know the reality
behind the Tarot. It's not magical, it's psychological. I, the patron god
of the Jarls (ruling class, that's managers and leaders to you) am the
Magician, the Emperor, the King of Swords, and the Hanged Man. The Magician
represents 'ability to translate ideas into action, to use psychic powers
to advantage; skill, diplomacy, self-confidence.' The Emperor symbolizes
'Authority. One who is master of his emotions; active intelligence able
to realize ideas.' The King of Swords stands for technical competence:
'An authority whether in the field of medicine, law or government; brilliant
and wise.' The Hanged Man stands for self-sacrifice for the sake of personal
development: 'One must die to the social order to dispense justice or to
continue on one's path of growth. Can denote spirituality, intuition, self-sacrifice.'"
(Card descriptions from Aquarian Tarot Deck. 1975. Morgan Press Incorporated,
Dobbs Ferry, NY)
"The card for Strength represents 'Courage, magnaminity, persistence,
patience, spiritual power. Able to offset any bad luck in surrounding cards.'
It's what Machiavelli called virtù and the ancient Greeks
arete.
It's Tom Peters' bias for action. It offsets bad luck because it
makes you the master of your own destiny. Its opposite is Machiavelli's
ozio:
indecisiveness, lack of energy, and indolence. Ozio leaves you at the mercy
of external forces and Fortune's capriciousness."
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