Healthy Influence Blog

I confess that military manuals and histories contain some of the best practical persuasion principles I’ve encountered from any field of study.  “On War” by Clausewitz translates from its historical period and area of study to practical persuasion with little loss in meaning or value.  I see the same applications with David Kilcullen’s “28 Articles for Company level COIN.”

Here are the 28 Articles in their abbreviated form.  This summary obscures deeper meanings so please read the essay.  Kilcullen asserts:

1. Know your turf.
2. Diagnose the problem.
3. Organize for intelligence.
4. Organize for inter-agency operations.
5. Travel light.
6. Find a political/cultural adviser.
7. Train the squad leaders – then trust them.
8. Rank is nothing: talent is everything.
9. Have a game plan.
The Golden Hour
10. Be there.
11. Avoid knee jerk responses to first impressions.
12. Prepare for handover from Day One.
13. Build trusted networks.
14. Start easy.
15. Seek early victories.
16. Practise deterrent patrolling.
17. Be prepared for setbacks.
18. Remember the global audience.
19. Engage the women, beware the children.
20. Take stock regularly.
Groundhog Day
21. Exploit a “single narrative”.
22. Local forces should mirror the enemy, not ourselves.
23. Practise armed civil affairs. Counterinsurgency is armed social work; redress basic social and political problems while being shot at.
24. Small is beautiful.
25. Fight the enemy’s strategy, not his forces.
26. Build your own solution – only attack the enemy when he gets in the way.
Getting Short
27. Keep your extraction plan secret.
Four “What Ifs”
What if you get moved to a different area?
What if higher headquarters doesn’t get counterinsurgency?
What if you have no resources?
What if the theater situation shifts under your feet?
28. Whatever else you do, keep the initiative.

As I read the Articles, I am immediately struck by the application of my Persuasion Rules. Virtually every Article can be understood as a rewrite or translation or metaphor or, more darkly and ironically, doppelganger for one or more Rules.  Here’s my take.

It’s About the Other Guy, Stupid; and All Persuasion is Local
1. Know your turf.
2. Diagnose the problem.
3. Organize for intelligence.
6. Find a political/cultural adviser.
10. Be there.
22. Local forces should mirror the enemy, not ourselves.

More Is the Enemy of Less
5. Travel light.
21. Exploit a “single narrative”.
24. Small is beautiful.

You Can Get Farther with a Kind Word and a Gun than with Either Alone; and Power Corrupts Persuasion
11. Avoid knee jerk responses to first impressions.
18. Remember the global audience.
23. Practise armed civil affairs.
25. Fight the enemy’s strategy, not his forces.

Persuasion Is Strategic or It is Not.
4. Organize for inter-agency operations.
9. Have a game plan.
12. Prepare for handover from Day One.
13. Build trusted networks.
16. Practise deterrent patrolling.
17. Be prepared for setbacks.
18. Remember the global audience.
19. Engage the women, beware the children.
21. Exploit a “single narrative”.
25. Fight the enemy’s strategy, not his forces.
27. Keep your extraction plan secret.
28. Whatever else you do, keep the initiative.

Great persuaders don’t need rich uncles, kindness from strangers, or third party vote splitters.
7. Train the squad leaders – then trust them.
8. Rank is nothing: talent is everything.
What if you get moved to a different area?
What if higher headquarters doesn’t get counterinsurgency?
What if you have no resources?
What if the theater situation shifts under your feet?

All bad persuasion is sincere.
8. Rank is nothing: talent is everything.
11. Avoid knee jerk responses to first impressions.
17. Be prepared for setbacks.
18. Remember the global audience.
20. Take stock regularly.
22. Local forces should mirror the enemy, not ourselves.
25. Fight the enemy’s strategy, not his forces.

If you can’t succeed, don’t try.
14. Start easy.
15. Seek early victories.
19. Engage the women, beware the children.

If you can’t count it, you can’t change it.
1. Know your turf.
2. Diagnose the problem.
9. Have a game plan.

Now, this is not to suggest that the Rules underlie the Articles like subatomic particles that compose atoms, but rather both the Rules and the Articles share one important commonality: A focus on how to change the Other Guy.  The unifying concept is “change” and if you are interested in change, then you need to consider every area of study that looks at change.

As a nonmilitary guy, my analysis must miss the Truth, the Whole Truth, and the Nothing But the Truth of Kilcullen’s Articles, but if you cut some slack and ignore the worst of my dilettante naiveté, you might find something useful.  The Persuasion Rules overlap well with the concepts Kilcullen employs in his 28 Articles.  These Articles argue that something different from sheer Guns (Power, whether Hard or Soft) is required in COIN.  It demands a different mindset and a different set of activities on the ground.  When I read the Articles, that different mindset connects with the Persuasion Rules.

Just as I find military thinking useful for thinking about persuasion, you might find persuasion thinking useful for thinking about warfighting.  Here are two avenues.

1. Consider thinking about the Persuasion Rules for developing strategy, planning, operations, and assessment and evaluation of COIN at any level from the “strategic corporal” to the head shed.  The Rules do not fight with the Articles and provide new ways of thinking about the Articles and COIN.  Use the Rules to stimulate new lines of analysis and application.

2.  Consider thinking about the Persuasion Plays from my book or others (like Robert Cialdini’s Influence, highly recommended) as the “last three feet” or the “sharp end of the stick” or the stuff you do on the ground day by day to change the Other Guys.  If COIN requires something extra, what is this extra and how do you do it?  My book provides explicit how-to knowledge along with the conceptual and strategic guidance needed to employ the how-to well.