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Introduction
- Human Behaviour
- Pain & Pleasure
- Need Satisfaction
- Ethics Simplified
Ambush
Bltzkrieg
Create a Crisis
Eat the Elephant
Hit & Run
Kilkenny Cats
Lady or the Tiger
Leak the Story
Poisoned Chalice
Bricolage
 

 
   

 
   

 

TACTICS

Chess tactic

The value of the information contained in this website will depend on how it is used. Although there is a fair bit of history, many of the strategies and tactics will improve day-to-day communication and management.

The real value of strategy and tactics is in the way you apply them to achieve what you want.  Tactics are one of the main tools of the strategist. 

Five words are commonly associated with tactics, these are:

- Objective
- Manoeuvres (positioning)
- Enemy (hostile environment)
- Positioning (deploying, directing)
- Concealment (covertness / deception)

To define tactics we can say that "a tactic, whether for the realisation of a military or non-military objective, involves out-manoeuvring (manoeuvres) an opponent (enemy) by deploying and directing information and resources (positioning) to cause the opponent to behave in a certain way - often within an environment requiring concealment (concealment) because, if recognised, these actions would be opposed. "

Clearly tactics are one of the more interesting and effective tools that can be used to deliver a strategy.  This is because tactics often work where a more straightforward and open approach does not.  It is sad but true that many people are negatively competitive and will often try to prevent others achieving success just because they can.

Tactics are not infallible.  It is important that you are realistic - is what you want to achieve possible?

Let us say that if a middle manager wants to become the Managing Director of a corporation and gives themselves a day to achieve this desire then clearly they are not in touch with reality.  However, if that person was to give themselves twenty years to achieve this goal then they actually have a reasonable chance of achieving it through normal everyday means.  

Where it gets interesting is when the time period allocated is two years.  Now the task becomes achievable but merely very difficult.  Most of this book will concentrate on this concept – identifying and using tactics to achieve objectives that are attainable but often quite difficult.

STARTING IS ONLY THE BEGINING

This advice focuses on willpower and determination.  A best selling book was once written that claimed that positive thinking alone could ensure that desires were achieved.  This concept appealed and it sold in the millions.  For a while the world, and particularly California, was full of incredibly optimistic under-achievers.  Well the world didn’t change and the book is only occasionally printed but the author who did know what he wanted and devised a tactical way to achieve it, is now very rich.
 
Every year millions of desires are identified and many of these even have strategies devised to deliver them.  Sadly, in comparison to the number begun, very few actually produce the desired result. 

There are three main reasons for this:

The first is that most people don’t know what they’re doing and develop bad strategies and simply do not understand the concept of a tactic.

The second is that even those people with good strategies and tactics, just don’t have the commitment to see the process through to completion. 

The third reason is a lack of courage to implement strategies and use tactics to achieve their ends.  In short, capability, commitment and courage are essential to the tactician.

Before you even contemplate using a tactical approach it is vital that you know understand the next three points:

  • Know precisely where you want to go (what you want to achieve).

  •  Know exactly where you are now

  •  Devise a plan that sets out how you will get from where you really are now to a precise destination that is where you want to be

CHECKMATE PRINCIPLE

One of the best examples of tactics is the game of chess.  The object of the game is not to “kill” the opponent’s king but to “manoeuvre” it into a position where it has no options remaining.  It can not move and is therefore now rendered useless.  Tactics use the same principle.

Essentially, the use of tactics is an exercise in out-thinking your opponent. The average person thinks only about action and consequence or put another way - only one move ahead. The Strategist and Chess master thinks between three and ten moves ahead and trains themselves to consider every variation.

 
   

“Begin, be bold and venture to be wise.”
Horace (65bc – 8bc)
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Tactics Insight

“Neither political party is clean when it comes to tactics that divide our people.”
Roy Barnes

“One must change one's tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one's superiority.”
 Napoleon Bonaparte

“We're seeing the development of tactics in Iraq, such as suicide bombing. Insurgents have been driving cars with explosives into hotels and office buildings. The recruitment may be even more prolific outside Iraq.”
Rand Beers

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”
 Sun Tzu

“Of course, the psychological part, the tactics, is very important.”
Sergei Bubka

“'Oh yes,' he thinks, 'Women. With their subversive sexual tactics have no place in this game. It is no accident that the queen is the deadliest of pieces; the manly pawn: the weakest.'”
Luis Camara Silva

 “The system of refusing the mere act of drinking and leaving the desire in full force, is unintelligent war tactics, it seems to me”
 Mark Twain

"Were the enemy's tactics offensive?" the king asked. "I should say so!" replied the unsuccessful general. "The blackguard wouldn't come out of his works!"”
Ambrose Bierce

“He had, almost, tactics. He was somewhere; he had to figure his next move, always.”
Robert Creeley

“All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.”
 Sun Tzu
 
“Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation.”
Max Euwe

“Secondly, the tactics of our - as you know, we don't have relationships with Iran. I mean, that's - ever since the late '70s, we have no contacts with them, and we've totally sanctioned them. In other words, there's no sanctions - you can't - we're out of sanctions.”
George W. Bush
 
 “The policy of Russia is changeless. Its methods, its tactics, its maneuvers may change, but the polar star of its policy, world domination, is a fixed star. [About Russia]”
 Karl Marx

“While I do not agree with the tactics my opponent used to achieve this office, the voters have spoken and I respect their decision.”
Baron Hill

 “All of childhood's unanswered questions must finally be passed back to the town and answered there. Heroes and bogey men, values and dislikes, are first encountered and labled in that early environment. In later years they change faces, places and maybe races, tactics, intensities and goals, but beneath those penetrable masks they wear forever the stocking-capped faces of childhood.”
 Maya Angelou

“Strategy is buying a bottle of fine wine when you take a lady out for dinner. Tactics is getting her to drink it.”
Frank Muir

“Always remember the first rule of power tactics: Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have”
 Saul Alinsky
 
“Now that I have called you on your false accusation, you are using additional smear tactics.”
George Soros

Tactics mean doing what you can with what you have”
Saul Alinsky

“Perhaps the single most important element in mastering the techniques and tactics of racing is experience. But once you have the fundamentals, acquiring the experience is a matter of time.”
Greg Lemond

“He rides in the game like heavy cavalry getting into position for the assault. Trots about, keenly watchful, biding his time, a master of tactics and strategy.”
Patrick Thompson
 
“When all else fails, fresh tactics!”
John Travolta