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April 28, 2015 By Cliff Martin 3 Comments

Why do I use examples of war to illustrate clarity (or lack of it)?

It may seem strange to you that I use so many examples with war to illustrate clarity? Why do I do that so much?

I do use examples from other genres but the reason I use war is that the results of lack of clarity are generally more dramatic. War is the ultimate non linear phenomenon. Non linear in this context means the result is not proportional to the force applied. Either you get dramatically more output or dramatically less. Either result is confusing. If you provide a small feinting force to probe your oppponent you are not expecting half his army to come charging at you. But this kind of thing does and can happen in war.

The results are magnified so you experience the results at a much higher intensity. If you aren’t clear about your desired outcome the results overwhelm your rationalizing capability. Often in the corporate world a failure that hurts a company is ignored and rationalized. Management gets away with it because it isn’t fashionable to talk about failures. Valuable experience about lack of clarity is thrown away in the name of reputation and image.

In the world of war failure isn’t neat and tidy. Death is the outcome; of people,structure and sometimes countries. You put people in harms way all the time in war. Politicians, in general, never understand this. They tend to treat casualties as pieces on a game table. If they persist in this kind of lack of clearness of their objectives a country can be truly hurt.

The other reason I use war is that it is generally lack of clarity that gets one involved in war. War is the ultimate breakdown. If you are clear about your outcome war can generally be avoided. When revenge, hatred and greed are the outcomes desired the result is predetermined.

One of my favorite quotations is, “Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” So I will continue to use examples from war because the lack of clarity is much more obvious than in other realms.

Filed Under: Clarity, Non linear

Comments

  1. Cliff Martin says

    June 1, 2015 at 12:17 pm

    Vicki,

    Thank you. There is more to come.

    Cliff

  2. soins pour le corps says

    June 5, 2015 at 7:58 pm

    Excellent read, I just passed this onto a friend who was doing a little research on that. And he actually bought me lunch since I found it for him smile So let me rephrase that: Thank you for lunch! “We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over.” by Ambrose Gwinett Bierce.

  3. dissertation paper says

    June 11, 2015 at 10:01 am

    An impressive share, I just given this onto a colleague who was doing a little analysis on this. And he in fact bought me breakfast because I found it for him.. smile. So let me reword that: Thnx for the treat! But yeah Thnkx for spending the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love reading more on this topic. If possible, as you become expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more details? It is highly helpful for me. Big thumb up for this blog post!

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About Cliff Martin

Cliff is a systems engineer with experience starting companies in medical and technical fields. He is an author, experienced martial artist and fascinated with systems thinking in history. His experience has made him an expert in the art of clarity.

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