The SUCCESS 6 Formula - Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory,

 

Strategy

Strategy

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

— Sun Zi, The Art of War

Strategy involves doing things in a deliberate way that is calculated to produce certain results. With the correct strategy, you can win even if you are in a weaker position.

As an example, a king once challenged his rival to a horse racing contest, knowing full well that his horses were superior. The rival thought about it and proposed three races. The one who won at least two would win the contest. The king readily agreed. In the first race, the king fielded his best horse. His rival fielded his worst horse. So the rival lost. In the second race, the king could only field his second best horse. The rival fielded his best, and won. By now, you can guess who won the third race, and the contest! 

The PRAISE model is influenced by Sun Zi’s The Art of War, which is one of the greatest books on strategy ever written. PRAISE gives a broad sweep of the process of planning and implementing a strategy through a five-step process called FREED, which stands for:

• Foundation 
• Revision 
• Examination 
• Evaluation 
• Discipline 

These five elements of strategy form a continuous process of learning. Each episode in life contains lessons that prepare us for the next. Strategy equips us with a lifelong LEARNING formula.

Foundation

“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six sharpening my ax.”   

— Abraham Lincoln, former US President

When a person is motivated, he or she will seek out the best tools and exploit them to the fullest. Even if the person does not have the best tools, he or she will make the best use of whatever is available. So even though tools can be helpful, what really matters is the person using them.

If you are studying for an examination, you obviously need to understand the subject well. That is your foundation. Many students practice answering questions from previous years’ examinations and this practice adds to their foundation.

It also helps if you rest well the night before so that you enter the examination hall with a mind that is fresh and clear. Foundation has many aspects. The more thorough you are, the more aspects you will cover, and the stronger your foundation will be.

Revision

In the context of strategy, revision refers to the act of altering and modifying one’s strategy.

In terms of revising for my examinations, I certainly had to change my strategy. In school and at university, I treated revision as a last minute task to refresh my memory just before my examinations. Later, I realized that examinations were not about memorizing but about understanding. If I already had a good understanding, there would be no need for any revision. I could sit for an examination at any time and do well in it.

To prepare for my examinations, I wrote out a revision plan, allocating time for practicing past questions and project work, as well as for social and leisure activities in order to maintain a healthy balance. Because I had done my revisions regularly throughout the school year, the process was effortless and painless. It was very different from the intense and stressful last minute revision that I did previously.

Examination

Examination in the context of strategy goes beyond examinations associated with studying. It refers to putting one’s plan to the test, in order to gauge the results. It could mean a trial run or mock examination, whereby the student practices past questions. Of course, it also includes an actual examination where students’ marks are graded.

Evaluation

In the past, whenever I did badly in my studies, I simply accepted my poor results. I felt that there was nothing I could do about it. PRAISE taught me to evaluate my performance — and to do something about it!

In my diploma course, I obtained a B for my first paper. I wanted to be a top student and I knew that B’s would not get me to the top. So I conducted an evaluation to discover my mistakes and weak areas and how I could overcome them in the future.

Some of the areas I considered in my evaluation were:

• Was I adversely influenced by SADDLE factors — self-pity, arrogance, distractions, daydreams, laziness, exaggerated fear?

• Did I have any problem with time management? 

• Was I adequate in note-making and in producing mind maps? 

• Did I have any poor study habits? 

• Did I have sufficient course material? 

• Was my foundation strong enough? 

• Were there gaps in my revision plan? 

• Were there weaknesses in the way I approached the exam?

By making a thorough evaluation of my performance, I was able to perform much better subsequently.

Discipline

There are two types of discipline — internal and external. Internal discipline is self-imposed and more effective. External discipline is imposed by a higher authority. It may not be as effective because once the authority is not around, the discipline may evaporate.

For any project to be successful — and even for daily routines to proceed smoothly — the people involved need to observe internal as well as external “system” discipline.

System discipline also requires that the interest of the group be placed above personal interest. When I had a disagreement with my team members over the source of motivation, I went along with the majority view for the group presentation. I presented my own view only when I wrote about my individual learning experience.

The situation was different when I had a dispute with my team leader over my clarification of the word “exercises”. If I had not clarified, I would not have been able to contribute meaningfully to the group discussion. So I persisted. Should I have backed off to avoid a conflict? No. If I did that, I might have felt bitter and any negative feeling on my part could have rubbed off onto the other team members.

There are no hard and fast rules. Sometimes it is better to have a short-term flare-up and then move on. At other times, it may be best to avoid an open confrontation. Perhaps the only rule I can offer is to think about what is best for the whole group, and act accordingly.

The greatest challenge for me was doing the master’s course itself. The first year was especially difficult as I was concurrently doing my diploma programme and holding a full-time job. Many times, I wanted to give up. In the end, though, discipline saw me through.

Author 

-George Tan

Real-Life Stories to Inspire and Motivate.