Ideas on the lessons we can draw from classical strategists and how we can apply them to our work as digital strategists
**Record Scratch** **Freeze Frame** Yeah. That’s me. You’re probably wondering how I got here. I know I sometimes do. When I first launched this project just under 2 years ago, my hope was that coming out of this I could build a repository that would be useful to aspiring strategists, giving them a roadmap for their career development. In order to do so, I had to answer 2 … Continue reading Episode 100: These Truths We Hold To Be Self Evident
“I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think”. This quote from Socrates, articulated over 2,000 years ago, sits at the heart of the teaching method he created, the Socratic Method. This debate driven approach to challenging ideas and finding common ground is as valid today in the context of the work of the strategist as it was in the classical age. Nothing … Continue reading Episode 87: Challenge Everything – Applying Socratic Method To Digital Strategy
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe”. Abraham Lincoln served as the 16th President of the United States until his assassination in 1865. During his time as President, he led the nation through one of the most traumatic experiences in its history, the Civil War. A deeply astute politician, Lincoln was a frontiersman … Continue reading Episode 86: Team Of Rivals: The Strategic Lessons of Lincoln
‘If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?’ Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi was a 13th Century poet, scholar and Sufi mystic whose writings continue to inspire across cultures and languages, making him the best selling poet in the United States. Rumi’s teachings are guided by the concept of Tawhid, or the union with the Beloved, and that the path for achieving … Continue reading Episode 83: The Mystic – Applying The Teachings Of Rumi To The Role Of The Strategist
In 1633, Galileo Galilei was convicted of and imprisoned for heresy by the Roman Inquisition for arguing that the planets revolve around the Sun, rather than around the Earth. Astronomer, physicist, philosopher and mathematician, Galileo, along with Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and other polymaths came to characterize an era of discovery, creativity and progress, often in the face of intense resistance. They were men of … Continue reading Episode 76: The Digital Strategist As Renaissance Man
To be called Machiavellian is to be considered unscrupulous, immoral and deceitful. This is a man that wrote that ‘since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved’, and ‘if an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared’. … Continue reading Episode 75: The Prince – 5 Lessons Strategists Can Learn From Machiavelli
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” Preparation. It’s at the heart of the Art of War. The idea that knowledge is … Continue reading Episode 67: Sun Tzu – The Art Of War In The Age Of Digital Strategy
“The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on”. Ulysses S. Grant was an uncomplicated, plain-speaking man who had an exceptional career. The most acclaimed Union general of the American Civil War who went on to win election twice as the President of … Continue reading Episode 65: Ulysses – The Strategic Lessons Of Grant
“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength”. Almost 2,000 years ago, the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote his masterpiece, Meditations, ‘a literary monument to a philosophy of service and duty, describing how to find and preserve equanimity in the midst of conflict by following nature as a source of guidance and inspiration’. I believe that the philosophy he … Continue reading Episode 58: The Stoic Strategist
Octopus Digital Strategy 