Certain to Win: The Strategy of John Boyd, Applied to Business

by Chet Richards

Now it is true that as a precondition to intuitive knowledge, the aspiring warrior or executive must practice basic skills so well that they become second nature. In Japanese samurai fencing, kendo, the student practices day and night until “sword becomes no-sword; intention becomes no-intention.”128 This is what we mean by tactical skill. Now you are ready to begin acquiring a true intuitive competence. How? By using these skills in ever more complex circumstances so that you build an intuitive feel for situations where there is a lot of stress and the answers are not clear. We do this through incessant practice, incorporating exposure to an ever-widening variety of new and challenging types of situations, and with feedback from knowledgeable individuals (otherwise we’re practicing our mistakes.) We polish individual techniques and also train as a group, thereby building the type of cohesion—mutual trust—that facilitates implicit communication. As Musashi summarized it, in the translation by Hanshi Steve Kaufman, which was Boyd’s favorite: Practice is the only way that you will ever come to understand what the Way of the warrior is about … Words can only bring you to the foot of the path …”