So far, in talking about Strategy, we’ve taken it for granted that “you” want certain outcomes, and can set goals to make that happen. But on closer examination, this “you” turns out to be more complex. All of us have experienced “wanting” something we know we’d be better off without, or the opposite, knowing we “should” want something, but lacking the motivation to make it happen. To think clearly and effectively about strategy, then, it’s helpful to clarify what part of ourselves we ought to heed in setting goals and going after them, which I propose ought to be the old-fashioned notion of the Will. Desire, Wanting, and the Will…
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What is Strategy? Besides being the favorite word of Business School professors, “strategy” has a rich and complex history as a concept, spanning across military, political, and business applications. At times, the different uses to which this word is put might leave us feeling like it is devoid of all meaning, but on closer inspection, there are elements in common across these different uses. In Strategy: A History, Lawrence Freedman does a masterful job of describing how the concept of strategy arose, became something to be studied and mastered, and eventually applied in new ways. Very briefly, strategy derives from the Greek word strategos, which means “general (of an army),”…
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It may seem a bit odd to take a detour into learning as a subject on a site dedicated to rhetoric, but I believe I can justify it to you in two ways. First, more obviously, while I’m sharing what I can on our subject matter here, the very nature of the medium is that if you want to get the most of it, you’re going to have to and put in some work on your own. I won’t be standing there to answer questions, point out errors, or direct you to the next stepping stone (though, by all means, if I can help with any of that less directly,…
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In the last post, we took the first steps in exploring what “value” is, why it’s important, and how to translate it into practical ethics through the vehicle of a set of virtues. But why put so much emphasis on ethics if our goal is learn and practice rhetoric, the art of persuasion through spoken and written communication? The Link Between Values and Power What Is Power? The reason we are concerned with ethics in the context of rhetoric is because rhetoric is a tool to give us more power, and any time you use power, you run the risk of harming yourself or others, and so there is an…
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What is Value Finding a Grounding for Value is Hard – But Important The first, and in some ways, most difficult step in living according to our values is to get at least somewhat clear on just what we mean by value. We talk equally comfortably about the value of a piece of jewelry as about the value of putting in a hard day’s work, or even the values you were raised with. Obviously, there’s something in common between these usages, but when you try to rigorously break it down, you might run into problems. Is the “value” of a financial asset really the same thing as the “value” of…
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This site is called Rhetoric for the Renaissance Man, so in letting you know what we’ll be doing here, I thought it might help to start with what I mean by that title, then explain a bit about who this site might appeal to (and might not), who I am and what has driven me to put this together, and lastly, a brief overview of the kinds of things we’ll dive into as we go. Who Is the Renaissance Man? The Renaissance Man is both a figure of history, describing multi-talented figures like Leonardo Da Vinci, Giordano Bruno, John Dee, and others, but also an aspirational, iconic figure of today.…