Ask Sun Tzu
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Question

Why does a team agree in meetings but fail to execute?

Check whether information, ownership, and resources support the promise.

Answer

Do not begin by blaming attitude. Check whether roles interpret the decision the same way, every critical dependency has an owner, and bad news can travel before failure. Only then distinguish capability, incentive, and trust problems.

Observe before acting

  • Whether one task has conflicting definitions
  • Whether risk can be reported before failure

Original text and reading

The Army on the March · Discipline through Kindness and Severity

If soldiers are punished before they have grown attached to you, they will not prove submissive; and unless submissive, they will be practically useless. If, when the soldiers have become attached to you, punishments are not enforced, they will still be useless. Therefore soldiers must be treated in the first instance with humanity, but kept under control by means of iron discipline. This is a certain road to victory.

Punish soldiers before they trust you and they will not obey; win their trust and then fail to punish, and they cannot be used. Win them with kindness, then hold them together with discipline.

The Army on the March · Winning the Troops' Trust

If a general always applies regulations and instructions to train his soldiers, they will be obedient. If regulations and instructions are not consistently applied, the soldiers will not be obedient. When orders are consistently carried out, it is because the general and soldiers are in harmony.

Orders that are always enforced in ordinary times will be obeyed in a crisis. Orders that are not, will not.

When it does not apply, and common misreadings

  • Do not use strategic language to excuse humiliation, coercion, or improper manipulation.

Keep reading

Team signals and alignment

Read behavior, information flow, and tempo before blaming attitude.

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