The Science of Faster, Better Decisions

Sun Tzu taught that a warrior's decision-making was a matter of reflex not planning. We must train our decision-making reflexes for quickly recognizing what must be done in challenging situations.[node:content/strategic-principle-day-611-making-our-moves-our-responses-must-be-both-appropriate-and-auto link cck=teaser; cck=field_situation; collapsed] Adaptive thinking is the ability to see into a complex, chaotic environment and discover order in the chaos and opportunity in the confusion. Sun Tzu's The Art of War offers a number of powerful models for creating a working feedback loop where every action takes us closed to our goals.[node:content/strategic-principles-day-19-analyzing-strategic-positions-constant-background-process link cck=teaser; cck=field_situation; collapsed] In our training, we train people you to use rules that conform to the latest discoveries on how we make the best decisions.

Cognitive Engineering

The latest research on how decisions are made tells us a lot about why Sun Tzu's Rules work. This field of science is called cognitive engineering. The types of skills that Sun Tzu teaches are known as "rapid cognition." Research shows that up to 96% of front-line decisions are made quickly with little time for information gathering or analysis. The good news is that this research also shows that if people are trained correctly, these decisions reflexes produce better results than any logical, analytical approach.

Gut Instincts

In developing our decision reflexes, we retrain our gut instincts. The science proves that our sense of having a "gut feeling" is correct, but without training those instincts, they are as likely to mislead us as to help us to make the correct decisions.

Mental Models

Sun Tzu system provides a number of simplified models for understanding situations, Cognitive engineers call these models mental simulations. Mental simulations are working models simple enough to remember and manipulate, but complex enough to represent the key elements of a situation. Once mastered, these mental models give us a powerful insight into competition that most people lack.

Seeing the Invisible

Once we master seeing the world using Sun Tzu's models, we can see what others miss. We get more value from the flow information we get because it fits into a larger picture. We are more sensitive to missing information and see what doesn't fit into the picture.

The Science of Strategy Institute has helped members all over the world master these skills. They write us about their success. Over the years, we have learned a lot about training people's adaptive thinking, putting the ancient lessons of Sun Tzu's strategy into a modern form that is easy to learn. This is what we call the science of strategy.