John Braddock's Blog, page 3

New Book: The 24th Name

I wrote a new short thriller called The 24th Name. It's the #1 new release in Kindle Singles fiction:Here's what early readers said: "Just read it in one sitting - a thinking man's Jack Reacher or a real awareness campaign. You've managed to tell two stories from within another story and that outer story is going to get spread around. Well Done!" "I found the story moved along very well. Enough action to keep me interested . . . it describes in so much detail the fight scenes-every movement....

Embedding A Zero-Sum Game In A Positive-Sum Game

Everybody likes a good Zero-Sum Game. Whether you’re watching or playing a sport, you like the tension. You like the effort it takes to win. You like a performance that beats a rival. If the Zero-Sum Game is a war, you like defeating an enemy.A big part of what makes Zero-Sum Games interesting is the risk of losing. Without the risk of losing, the Zero-Sum Game loses its tension. There’s less effort. Performances rarely reach greatness.But we also like Positive-Sum Games. We like when both si...

Questions, Decisions and Leadership

I was consulting for a large company. The project was to tie the company’s data and analytics to their decision-making in a particular area. They had tried to do it several times before but hadn’t been able to make it work. They were desperate to get it right, so I had the freedom to take a different approach.Step one was simple: Talk to the top 40 leaders in the company and have them tell me their questions.I asked the leaders to ignore their current data. I asked them to forget what they kn...

China’s President Talks About Zero-Sum Games (And Negotiation)

Recently, China President Xi Jinping gave a speech about China’s place in the world.He talked about Zero-Sum Games and (implicitly) Positive-Sum Games.CNBC reported:"In his speech, the Chinese president sold a vision of China as a benevolent leader of the global economy, emphasizing that open systems are the best course of action for the world.'We must refrain from seeking dominance and reject the zero-sum game, we must refrain from 'beggar thy neighbor' and reject power politics or hegemony...

Games In The Office

In the Spy's Guide books, Positive-Sum Games and Zero-Sum Games are a simple way to develop effective strategies.Author Chris Illuminati (his real name) asked me how those games apply to strategies in office politics. The result was this article.Here's how it starts: Working in an office is oddly the same as working in the field of espionage. There are allies, enemies, allies who could become enemies and vice versa. There’s also intense negotiation to get more money, a more prominent title an...

What Russians Think About A Spy's Guide To Thinking + Strategy

Russian publishing house Alpina (Russian publisher of Malcolm Gladwell, Stephen Covey, and many others) has translated and combined A Spy's Guide To Thinking and A Spy's Guide To Strategy into a single volume. The Russian title is "Think Like A Spy: How To Make Decisions In Critical Situations."Alpina says it's a bestseller in Russia.Here's the cover: Alpina posted reviews from two former Russian intelligence officials and an author (via Google Translate): "John Braddock's book describes the...

Why Americans Are Confused About "Trade Wars"

In a jokey New York Times article, John Schwartz writes about starting a “trade war” against Whole Foods. He consults with two economists: “Trade deals are about setting the ground rules so other people can get what they want,” Mr. Goolsbee said. When you stop them all from getting what they want, he said, you’ve “got the game wrong.”I had to admit that the two economists had a point. I may feel that Whole Foods has, in fact, gotten “cute” by charging so much for wild-caught gulf shrimp and t...

The Strategy Of "Trade Wars"

There are reports of a “Trade War” between the U.S. and China.CNBC reports:Trade tensions, which have recently been in the spotlight, continued to simmer: The U.S. Trade Representative's office published its proposed list of around 1,300 Chinese imports that could be hit with tariffs. In response, China said via an embassy statement it opposed the additional tariffs proposed and that "it is only polite to reciprocate," Reuters reported. China's ambassador to the U.S. also told CNBC on Wednesd...

Good Data For What I Write Next

The Data-Analysis-Decision-Action process in A Spy’s Guide To Thinking isn’t static. It isn’t something you do one time. It’s born from Boyd’s OODA Loop. As a loop, you cycle through the DADA process as many times as you can. After you act, you observe the results. You collect new data. You feed the new data into your analysis. So you make better decisions each time around.You get feedback. And you use it to inform what you do next.You can have a problem at any of the stages. You can have a p...

A Mistake Writers Make

If you’re a reader, you’ve probably read a book by Malcolm Gladwell. Either his bestsellers The Tipping Point, Outliers or his more recent book David And Goliath.Now, he’s teaching a “masterclass” on writing.One tip he gives away for free in the advertisement for the class (beginning at the :59 mark): Gladwell: “One of the mistakes I think writers make is they spend a lot of time thinking about how to start their stories. And not a lot of time thinking about how to end them. Knowing my ending...