let's take a look at the nine principles of war their definitions and see how they apply not only to the military but also to your business family and team joint publication number one doctrine for the armed forces of the united states establishes the nine principles of war and each of the military branches continue to use and reference these principles they are mass objective offensive security economy of force maneuver unity of command surprise and simplicity i learned about the principles of war as a young officer in the infantry captain's career course we memorize them in the order as moose must but i think it makes sense to start with objective objective is your goal this is the reason you're fighting this is your purpose a war is made of many battles or engagements and for that reason the war must have a long-term objective and every military engagement or battle must have a short-term objective invade occupied terrain and destroy the enemy gain control of a piece of key terrain capture a terrorist before he makes another bomb civilian companies and teams should also always have a goal perhaps it is to be the number one source of military leadership content on the internet perhaps it is to sell your product to a fortune 500 company perhaps it's to score more goals than your opponents on the field we all know the difference between being on the defensive or being on the offensive offensive actions are the most effective and decisive way to accomplish your objective and by being offensive you can take the initiative while maintaining freedom of action and achieving decisive results if you are on the defensive you may never catch a terrorist bad guy but if you take the initiative to offensively hunt down the enemies of your country you can achieve decisive results reactive businesses survive but they don't flourish proactive businesses as well as proactive employees who go on the offensive are much more likely to be successful and get what they want mass is using overwhelming combat power at a decisive place and time instead of sending this infantry squad to accomplish the mission you would mass effects by sending a special operations team supported by artillery some apaches for close air support and two sniper teams this is where you don't pick a fair fight you overwhelm the enemy so that there is no way that you can lose in sports this may be using your best players for the final minutes of the game in business this is sending your best salesman giving your best sales presentation in marketing with well-known experts who enhance your credibility economy of force is the judicious employment and distribution of forces you can't send an aircraft carrier group to fight every idiot pirate off the coast of somalia so you send some seals and swicks you must allocate and mass your resources with the main effort but all of your other assets need to support secondary efforts the second string athletes serve a vital role on the team and they are there and ready to help the primaries warm up and to replace them if injured your it guy should never stop working he might not be the ceo or the senior salesman but he can always make your website faster and more user-friendly he can improve search engine optimization everyone in the fight must have a task and purpose maneuver is the movement of forces in relation to the enemy to gain an advantage effective maneuver keeps the enemy off balance exploits success and continually poses new problems for the enemy by rendering his actions ineffective eventually leading to his defeat but i want to point out that in order to maneuver you must be flexible and nimble this goes for a military unit as well as for a business if you are so stuck in your tedious processes and approvals that you can't effectively and efficiently maneuver you will never be proactive enough to win a war or to make an effective policy or to come out with a new product you must outmaneuver your competition to beat them unity of command means that all assets are employed under one responsible commander and that this commander has the authorities to direct and maneuver his assets as he sees fit this is a principle that is frequently violated one of the reasons why we win every battle but we lose every war is that we always violate our own principle of the unity of command we have the tactical commanders the battle space owners the partner nation leaders we have operational controller opcon administrative control ad con tactical control tacon in my opinion this all gets complicated and a bit silly not to mention this causes so much micromanagement when it comes to approving operations civilians might also have the same problem they have a supervisor a customer a project manager and a landlord where they rent office space i can't recommend it enough that you try to honor the principle of unity of command by having a single boss who has the authority and responsibility to accomplish the mission maintaining your security reduces your vulnerability to hostile acts influence or surprise although security is one of the nine principles of war security is always rule number one i've made several videos so far about security so if you haven't already watched them i suggest you do so trust but verify make good decisions be prepared have a cyber security plan be mindful of information security operational security and of course physical security it is always wise to strike the enemy at a time or place or in a manner for which he is unprepared surprise can be in speed timing the size of your attack the direction or location of the main effort consider using a secondary effort as a deception to help achieve surprise one of the reasons special operations training is so hard is that we are taught to do special operations in the dark on a cold rainy night the bad guys are human too and they snuggle up to keep warm and dry they let their guard down and we are taught to exploit this inherent human weakness a sports team might run a surprise or trick play a business could run a deception campaign to psych out their competition while they continue to work on their main effort in peace and then bam out of nowhere your business unleashes a barrage of marketing advertising and new products winning the market and making profits war is hell and war is foggy simple clear plans and uncomplicated concise orders minimize misunderstanding and confusion we've all heard keep it simple now add in the fog of war equipment made by the lowest bidder and multiple layers of command and control it is much easier to orchestrate 20 instruments than a hundred do the basics in this case shoot move and communicate better than anyone else and you are more likely to succeed your product can be complicated but your plan must be simple okay there you have it a quick explanation of the principles of war and how they can help you lead your team and business to the next level thanks for watching don't forget to subscribe and to forward to someone who needs to see this life is a special operation are you ready for it you