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User’s GuideArt of War: Sun TzuStrategy Card DeckTMCenter For Advantage

Table of ContentsIntroduction Card Set Description Card Use For the Leadership Strategy Training Copyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Introduction

What is the Art of War: Sun TzuStrategy Card Deck? The Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck is acard set of winning strategies designed toimprove your ability to succeed when faced withadversariesIt is also a playing carddeck made from casinograde card stockCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Qualifications The Art of War: Sun TzuStrategy Card Deck hasbeen rigorously reviewed byprofessional strategists toinclude instructors of theNational Defense Universityat Ft. McNair, Washington,D.C.Copyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Why was the Art of War: Sun TzuStrategy Card Deck written? Because your plans needto survive contact withyour adversaries and the first key to winning is staying inthe gameCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Who is the Art of War: Sun TzuStrategy Card Deck for? MilitaryBusinessLawPoliticsSportsAnyone who wants to train their competitivemind to be at its very bestCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Why is the Art of War: Sun TzuStrategy Card Deck Necessary? Many anthropologistsbelieve that humanintelligence evolved to makeus better able to deceive anddefeat our neighborsThe Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deckcontains the strategies men and women haveused to deceive and defeat their neighbors sincethe dawn of timeKnowing the strategies is to your advantageCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Why should I use the Art of War:Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck? The better you are atapplying conflictstrategies, the lesslikely you are toneed themThis means you can better focus your attentionon positive efforts and act in accord with yourconscienceCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Why should I use the Art of War:Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck? 2 It is also a matter ofsurvivalOther people will usethese strategiesagainst youThe best way to ensure that your adversariessucceed is for you not to appreciate what theyare doing to youCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Practice The key to applying the strategiesin the Art of War: Sun Tzu StrategyCard Deck is to practice, practice,and practiceReview the cards in trainingReview the cards before addressing a challengeReview the cards after a contest to improve yourperformance next time Use the cards in your weekend card games;your unconscious mind will process the ideaswhile you have funCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy CardDeck makes training easy and fun and as rigorous as you want yourtraining to beCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Card SetDescription

54 Cards: 54 Strategies3 points of adviceper card162 points of adviceIn totalCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Card Layout Number & suitTitle – Name of thestrategyStrategy – Definition ofthe strategyBasis – Why thestrategy worksCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Four Categories Each suit represents a categoryAll contests involve an interplay and progressionof the categories as follows:Prepare selfPrepare field of contestIsolateEliminateCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Cause The categories represent causesCauses are what you do to effect something elseThat something else is material (to includepeople), space, time, and/or safety What you do (Cause)Prepare selfPrepare field of contestIsolateEliminate What you effectMaterialSpaceTimeSafetyCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

A Natural Pattern A universal pattern of progress from beginningto end can be seen in how a salesperson winsa sale, a lawyer wins a case, an innovatorcaptures an idea, a predator captures its prey,etc. For example:Prepare self – A wolf learns how to be thebest hunter it can be2. Prepare field of contest – The wolf seeksthe best position between itself and its quarry3. Isolate – The wolf isolates one animal from the herd4. Eliminate – The wolf goes in for the kill1.Copyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

A Natural Pattern (Part 2) In comparison, for example:Prepare self – A lawyer educates himself as best he canabout a case2. Prepare field of contest – The lawyer seeks the bestjury at jury selection, and selects and prepares the rightwitnesses3. Isolate – The lawyer finds an inconsistency on the part ofthe opposing side and steers the focus of that case tothat inconsistency4. Eliminate – The lawyer uses the inconsistency to createreasonable doubt in the jury and gets an acquittal1.Copyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Effect The effect you want to achieve is to:EliminateEliminate;Isolate;integrate or;negateyour adversary orsomething importantfor his or hersuccessNegateCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensorsIsolateIntegrate

Direct You achieve this directlyEliminate by eliminatingIsolate by isolatingIntegrate by integratingNegate by negatingCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Indirect You achieve this indirectlyEliminate by isolating,integrating or negatingIsolate by eliminating,integrating or negatingIntegrate by eliminating,isolating or negatingNegate by eliminating,isolating or integratingCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Remembering that by executingyour strategy you can effect MaterialSpaceTimeSafetyCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Mutually Supportive Each card offersadviceYou may or may notknow how to enactthat adviceIf you do not know how to enact advice from onecard, you can find an answer on another cardCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Example of Mutual Support For example, acommon way to“Provoke YourAdversary’s Reaction”is to bluff, which maybe done in accordwith “CreateSomething FromNothing”Copyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Example Mutual SupportFor example, anattorney mightexplore how anopponent will react toa real threat bypresenting and thenwithdrawing a threatof no actualsubstanceCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Card UseStructured yet flexibleapproach that modelsreal life

Review tool A simple but effective wayto use the cards is to justread them and think aboutthe ideasThere are only 1,700 words in the entire carddeck, so you can read it in under twenty minutesDo this a few times, and your strategicperformance will improveLike any art form, repetition improvesperformanceCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Card Logic For more sophisticated use, you can use otheraspects of the cards, such as the rank, as wellThe cards are organized logically, but unlike abook, the cards can also be arranged in anyfashion suitable to asituationThis flexibility helps youto take advantage ofopportunitiesCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Rank Higher ranked cards tend to denote strongerstrategies than lower ranked cards;however, any strategy, no matter the rank, couldbe the right and strong strategy for a givensituationYou need to make all thestrategies a part of you soyou can use them naturallywithout thinking about themtoo muchCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Opportunity Management As you plan and executean action, you seek to relyon strategies described inthe Art of War: Sun TzuStrategy Card Deck fromhigher and higher ranksIf your action is grounded on strategies at thetop, for example, the four aces, then you are in astrong positionIf your action is grounded on strategies of lowranked cards, for example, the threes, then youare in a comparatively weak positionCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Card Rank as a Predictor ofSuccess If the success of your actiondepends upon a higher rankingstrategy, then you generallyhave a better chance of winningthan if your success dependsupon a lower ranking strategy provided you execute thestrategy well enough tosucceedCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Go from Weakness to StrengthSeek to progress a series of actions from left, “Live to FightAnother Day,” to right and up, “Eliminate Your Adversary”Live to FightAnother DayEliminate YourAdversaryPrepare selfPrepare the fieldof contestIsolateCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensorsEliminate

Steadily Strengthen Your OptionsSeek to be able to use strategies from cards with higherranksK107Prepare self7Prepare the fieldof contestIsolateCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensorsEliminate

Gray Division Strength by rank is a gray division, not black andwhiteAny strategy could prove the winningstrategyWith the principles of strategy in mind, have theflexibility to use whichever strategy makes senseat the timeCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Best/Worst Situation Your best position is to have the power neededto execute any of the aces, even if you do notactually use themYour least favorable position is to have only thepower to enact one of the twos or other lowerranked cardsCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Command the Whole ProcessThe longest path to victory starts at “Live to Fight AnotherDay” where you must build from weakness to strengthA2Prepare selfPrepare the fieldof contestIsolateCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensorsEliminate

Then Seek AcceleratorsThe shortest path to victory begins right at “Eliminate YourAdversary” since having that power, even if you choose notuse if, gives you considerable leverage over your adversaryPrepare selfPrepare the fieldof contestIsolateCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensorsEliminate

Deuces Wild Keep in mind that you make a given strategya winner or loser!!!A master strategist might make his adversary believethe he (the adversary) has won because the masterstrategist has run away, and thenstrike when that adversary lets hisguard down – a win from a weakpositionIn contrast, eliminating an adversarymight cause a more formidableadversary to take his place – a lossfrom a strong positionCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Combinations The strategy described on each card is like asingle note on a pianoCombinations of strategies create the mostpowerFor example, youmight “Raise theStakes” by “StrikingWith a BorrowedHand” and make that the only part of your planyou show before a surprise strike – which is yet afourth card, “Catch Your Adversary Sleeping”Copyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Wild Cards Wild cards provide a way toresolve issues, one way or theotherThey do not belong in anyspecific suites or ranksAt any point in the strategicprocess, you can enact a wildcardHowever, do so for goodreason because they representrisky movesWhich for dramatic purposes is one reasonHollywood portrays them so oftenCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

Crisis Action Planning (CAP) During a crisis, people tend tofall back on the strategies theyknow or strategies that workedbeforeFamiliar strategies are not necessarily the beststrategies for a given situationThe Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deckallows you to quickly consider strategies that youmight recognize, but that might not otherwise beat the top of your mindCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors

For theLeadership

Training Tool The Art of War: Sun TzuStrategy Card Deck is aready made training toolyou can employanywhere and anytimeSelect a specific card, or pull one at random,and you have material to discussUse the cards to critique during an after actionreviewCopyright 2006 – Center For Advantage and its licensors