When the lips are gone

Duke Xian of Jin wanted to attack Guo, and the road to Guo ran through Yu. He sent word to Duke Mu of Yu asking for passage, with a gift of a jade and a team of horses.

The duke of Yu was inclined to agree. His adviser Gong Zhiqi said: Yu and Guo are like lips and teeth. If the lips go, the teeth are cold. If Jin takes Guo today, it will be Yu's turn tomorrow.

The duke of Yu took the jade and the horses and let the army through.

Jin took Guo. On the way home the Jin army took Yu as well, and captured the duke.

There's a detail in the original that's almost comically cruel. When the news came that Yu had fallen, someone asked Gong Zhiqi what he'd say. He said: the jade and the horses are the same gifts, and the duke is still the same person who took them.

The point of that line: only the geography changed. The pattern was visible from the start, and the gifts were just the price of not seeing it.

You can map this onto every team you've worked in. Two functions that depend on each other quietly compete. One wins the headcount argument, and eight months later the remaining function can't do its job, and everyone is surprised.

When you're arguing inside an interdependent system, ask what happens to the other side of the arrangement if you get everything you're asking for.

MOJOWAY asks the same question about a person's life. Who else depends on the thing you're about to cut, and what do the lips feel like when the teeth are gone.