By Frank Claeys

Sun Tzu started his first training exercise. He ordered the women to stand in rows and march. The women started giggling and laughing and disobeyed his order. Sun Tzu thought; they are not obeying my order, this could be a breach of communication. Maybe they did not understand the order or it was unclear. I have to explain my order again. He explained the drill again and repeated the order to march. The women giggled again and refused to get in line. Sun Tzu gave the order to kill 500 of the women. The Emperor was not willing to allow this, but Sun Tzu stated that he had given him authority to complete this task and that it was therefore his responsibility. Sun Tzu created his army with the remaining 500 women. 

Thousands of years later I was annoyed by a female colleague of mine because she kept ignoring me while forwarding her commercial reports. She simply refused to report to me and therefore ignored my marketing responsibility. I thought of Sun Tzu. Had I been clear enough in communicating my task? Should I show that I am angered and annoyed by her behaviour? In my frustration I wanted to chop off her head (in a figure of speech) but my master had taught me that I should explain my order again, friendly but forcefully, and wait for her reaction. If it is negative, I should intervene. I counted to ten and wrote her a friendly but forceful note that I would appreciate it, seeing my responsibilities, if she would add me to the forwarding list of messages about meetings with clients. Low and behold, since that email she always forwards her messages to me. Sun Tzu saved a life…

Frank Claeys