One drum

Qi attacked Lu. Duke Zhuang wanted to advance at once. Cao Gui, a man with no rank, asked to come along and the duke took him.

On the field, the duke was about to beat the drums for the charge. Cao Gui said: not yet.

The Qi army beat their drums three times. Then Cao Gui said: now.

Lu defeated Qi. Afterwards the duke asked for an explanation.

Cao Gui said: fighting depends on courage. The first drumbeat raises it, the second lowers it, the third exhausts it. By their third, their courage was gone and ours was full. That's why we won.

I think about that when someone starts a meeting by announcing urgency. The phrase is "we need to move fast", spoken at 9 a.m. on a Tuesday, and by the third such meeting the same phrase produces nothing.

Energy is a resource that depletes on both sides of a conflict. Whoever spends theirs first, in public, in a show, hands the other side the advantage.

Which means the discipline is boring and unglamorous: don't beat the drum until you're actually going to move. Save the announcement for the moment your legs are on it.

MOJOWAY's intake is deliberately slow at the start and specific at the end. Restraint in the first ten minutes is usually what makes the last five useful.