North Korean strategy: how does the world look to North Korean leaders?

I have found people outside North Korea quick to express feelings of moral outrage, indignation, and injustice by judging North Korean leaders. They call them monsters, bad, evil, and so on. I have found such judgment counterproductive to influencing others (as well as my own well-being). If you don't like what's happening there and want to change it, expressing judgment may make you feel better, but you sacrifice ability to change things. I guarantee decision-makers there don't consider themselves monsters, bad, or evil. If you say they are, you polarize the situation, contribute to them digging in their heels, and…

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Occupy Wall Street and Leadership, part 4: Bloomberg taking sides polarizes situation

After finishing the first three posts in this series I found the first link returned on searching "bloomberg occupy wall street" quoted him Tuesday in the Daily News. Reporters are motivated to play up controversy, so I figure the reporter may have taken the quotes out of context. Based on what I read, I see Bloomberg increasing the polarization, taking sides, and missing his opportunity to lead. As a leader, I think the opportunity is not to delve into what people are saying, except to make sure it's legal and non-violent, but to support their right to speak, as long…

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North Korean strategy: what do North Korean leaders want?

Last post I pointed out the stakes to individual North Korean decision-makers. That perspective implies North Korean decision-makers are part of a larger system they have little control over and have little choice not to follow their roles within it without grave risk to themselves and everything they care about. With so little choice, what do they want? What do they pursue? Of course they want material prosperity and security, like anybody else. Kim Jung Il famously buys hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cognac annually. As individuals, they probably want to rise through the ranks, but probably in…

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Occupy Wall Street and Leadership, part 3: recommendations

Okay, now we understand the situation. What can be done? As I wrote yesterday, people don't want to protest. They want their voices heard and to understand and agree with the process they're talking about. The opportunity for the Mayor of New York City is to follow a three-fold path Support the right to speak freely in his city Recognize the need for order and non-violence Support the city's great tradition of active participation in politics First, acknowledge protesters' right to free speech... Stating clearly there are multiple issues at play, only one of which is law and order in…

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North Korean Strategy: from the leaders’ perspective

To understand how leaders in North Korea decide how to implement the strategy I've described in the past few posts, you have to look at the situation from their perspective. When a business decides its strategy, it formally deliberates and decides it. For the management team to mess up on implementing it may result in the company losing money, market share, and so on. Messing up badly can result in being fired and possibly losing their jobs and even personal savings. But you don't risk bodily harm or risk your life. When an authoritarian ruler messes up strategy, they risk…

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Occupy Wall Street and Leadership, part 2: the New York City Mayor’s opportunity

Following yesterday's context... Bloomberg has done a lot for the city. I like the increased bike lanes and pedestrian zones in Times Square, Herald Square, and Madison Square that have appeared under his leadership, for example. But personally I remember him most for what I saw as his lack of leadership during the 2004 Republican convention in New York City. People wanted to protest non-violently. The police refused permission to meet in Central Park, where larger groups had met before. The mayor’s voice was largely silent. 500,000 people intended to speak their minds non-violently. The police both prevented it and…

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Occupy Wall Street and leadership, part 1: the context

This series of posts will present easy, low-risk-of-error, high-chance-of-success actions that would-be leaders can do. As always in this blog, it begins with context and an overview of the relevant principles as I see them. So far, the movement has revealed a stunning lack of leadership all around. People ask who is leading the movement. Great question, but the protesters are only one place lacking leadership. While most people point out the protesters’ lack of leadership, I am more stunned by two other cases of absent leadership: the government’s response and the changes to the financial system that prompted the…

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North Korean Strategy: the North Korean government’s sustainable competitive advantages

I'm using the lens of business strategy to understand the North Korean government's strategy. That lens applies, partly because of the similarities between business and political competition, but mostly because North Korea's situation is so simple. The three main relevant factors in competitive strategy are Keeping out competition -- to have a sustainable competitive advantage -- dominates strategy. Dominating geographically is often an effective strategy for a sustainable competitive advantage. Customer captivity is another effective strategy for a sustainable competitive advantage. What is a sustainable competitive advantage? This value investing site put it succinctly for businesses A sustainable competitive advantage…

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North Korea strategy: the players and their motives

First a few caveats before I paint the broad strokes for the perspectives and motivations for the major players as they relate to North Korean strategy. I haven't studied international and public affairs. I believe, nonetheless, that the broad strokes below describe the important aspects of the strategic situation. Perhaps I'm speaking out of ignorance, but I believe history backs me up: how else can you explain a regime maintaining power with no resources defying major global powers to build nuclear weapons, counterfeit the dominant powers' currency, deal arms and drugs, and oversee the preventable deaths of ten percent of…

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North Korea strategy: the playing field and major players

The playing field for North Korean strategy, which reduces the number of relevant players, simplifies North Korea's strategic situation more than almost anything else. Few other nations see such a combination of global importance and simplicity. The map below, from Wikipedia, shows nearly everything you need to know about the playing field. North Korea shares borders with three countries: China, South Korea, and Russia. Farther to the east lies Japan. No other countries are close. For a few reasons, mainly that North Korea developed nuclear weapons and its involvement in the Korean War, the United States is involved. Within North…

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North Korea strategy: a primer on strategy

If you want to plan something non-trivial, you need a strategy. If you don't know what strategy is, you can't make a good strategy. I've read one book that covers strategy better than any other -- Competition Demystified: a radically simplified approach to business strategy, by Bruce Greenwald and Judd Kahn (I haven't read On War yet but I have read Porter). While it focuses on business as opposed to political or military strategy the principles are similar. Competition Demystified's first chapter defines strategy, describes its importance, outlines its main principles, and begins the process of creating a strategy. On…

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North Korea strategy: preview

"What can I do?" This question drives interest in North Korea perhaps more than any other after asking what it's like. Even people who know little about the rest of the world sense something about North Korea they'd like to help with. Nobody sees what they can do. The next few posts will cover what you can do. I believe you need to understand North Korea's situation from a strategic level both globally and regionally to see what you can and can't do and what may or may not work. I also believe you can learn the relevant overall situation…

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An offer to the Freedombox community

My post on how Freedombox's pursuit of perfection is undermining its goals prompted some discussion. Hearing how people the Freedombox community wants to help end up supporting products we see as non-Free jolted my system. I believe constructive criticism helps, but my desire to contribute more led to the offer below. One person's response got me thinking about how I, as someone who doesn't write much software, can help. Diaspora is a decent example. They released something buggy, with minimal functionality, reasonably early on… yes, they were criticized for it’s quality at the time, but it got people using it…

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The Method: transformations, stage 3: regular life

[This post is part of a series on The Method to use The Model -- my model for the human emotional system designed for use in leadership, self-awareness, and general purpose professional and personal development -- which I find the most effective and valuable foundation for understanding yourself and others and improving your life. If you don't see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you'll get more value than reading just this post.] Eventually a transformation's new environments, beliefs, and behaviors synchronize completely with each other. The cycle you changed brings the…

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The Method: transformations, stage 2: support

Once the elements of a transformation start supporting each other the transformation starts to feel like it will take root. You may still feel some inertia, fakeness, and conflict between the old and new you, but decreasingly. Examples of elements supporting each other include After starting a new hobby (behavior) you start meeting others who do the same hobby People compliment you on losing weight People you meet in new circles of friends or colleagues have mutual friends Confirmation biases start reinforcing new beliefs and so on. You also start feeling reward from new cycles as the elements in them…

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The Method: transformations, stage 1: a caveat

I should note a caveat for the transition stage. Since this stage involves conflict, feeling fake, and overcoming inertia, you may use a lot of willpower. How do you know you're moving in a direction that improves your life? How do you know you aren't pushing hard on something that you thought would help but isn't? The best answer is through experience. After a few transformations you pick up the subtle cues that show inertia decreasing or that what seemed feeling fake at the beginning also carried feelings of exploration and discovery. For example, if you tried a new style…

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The Method: transformations, stage 1: transition

You can usually do the preparation stages of transforming a part of your life easily since you can do them yourself, without someone else. Working with other people usually makes things more complex. Still, you generally do benefit from involving others. Because they have different perspectives and can see your life from further away, their input usually helps. At the end of the preparation stages you have two sets of environments, beliefs, and behaviors in mind -- your current one and your desired one. You know your current situation so, however little reward it brings, you know how to get…

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The Method: transformations overview

We've covered the preparation stages of transforming a part of your life to bring more reward by choosing environments, beliefs, and behaviors based on your interests. Of course your life changes all the time whether you intentionally cause those changes or not. Using the Method, based on the Model, lets you do it systematically, intentionally, and makes you more likely to succeed than alternatives. Now let's look at how the transformation evolves in your life over the next few posts. Unplanned life changes can start and unfold unpredictably. Planned structured ones like intentional transformations following the Method can unfold unpredictably…

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The Method: summary of preparation (with diagram)

EDIT: I modified how I present the Method slightly. Please see the new version of this page and the updated series on implementing the Method. We've now covered the examples and preparation stages of how to implement the Method. Here is a diagram summarizing these steps (click it for full size) Preparation Know your emotional system Understand your current emotional cycles Awareness Conceive of consistent environments, beliefs, and behaviors Implement them Next: the stages of a transformation

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The Method: step 4, create and implement them

EDIT: I modified how I present the Method slightly. Please see the new version of this page and the updated series on implementing the Method. Having conceived of new environments, beliefs, and behaviors consistent with each other, the emotions you want, and what you will, won't, can, and can't do, the next step is to create and implement them. Creating and implementing them means more than just doing some simple task. It means creating a lifestyle for yourself based on your emotional cycles, which you learned about in the first two steps. That is, choosing your environment means choosing whom…

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The Method: step 3, conceive of new consistent environments, beliefs, and behaviors

EDIT: I modified how I present the Method slightly. Please see the new version of this page and the updated series on implementing the Method. The next step after awareness is to plan -- in particular, to conceive of new environments, beliefs, and behaviors that are consistent with each other and what you can't or won't change to replace the old ones and designed to bring about emotions you want. Choosing environments, beliefs, and behaviors to bring about the emotions you want leads you to live according to your values, nobody else's. It makes you resilient to feeling bad and…

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The Method: steps 1 and 2, awareness

EDIT: I modified how I present the Method slightly. Please see the new version of this page and the updated series on implementing the Method. The Method's first two steps -- knowing your emotional system and understanding your current emotional cycles -- involve little action. They constitute awareness. The appeal to act on a situation you want to change quickly and decisively can tempt you. I advise against it, whether you are leading yourself or others. Acting without awareness can point you in counterproductive directions. It can spur you to ever more action to make up for the initial wrong…

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The Method: step 2, understand your current emotional cycles

EDIT: I modified how I present the Method slightly. Please see the new version of this page and the updated series on implementing the Method. The Method's first step was a once-per-lifetime step. Once you understand your emotional cycle once, you can retain it all your life. Step 2 begins the preparation for each situation. The main part of understanding your current emotional cycle is to understand the elements -- the relevant environments, beliefs, emotions, and behaviors. The other part is to know what you can and can't change and what you will and won't change. Your situation For the…

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The Method, step 1: know your emotional system

EDIT: I modified how I present the Method slightly. Please see the new version of this page and the updated series on implementing the Method. Today's post will be brief. The Method's first step is always to know your emotional system. Knowing the Model does just that, and my series on the Model gives the overview of it. This familiar diagram summarizes it. Keep in mind that the Model above is a starting point. Because its purpose includes ease in communicating it I simplified it at the expense of some important detail. I also know everyone is unique, as are…

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