If the master of strategic restraint in war were reincarnated today to write the 'Art of Designing Customer Experience', I imagine that it would have read something like these snippets below:
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“Know your enemy and know yourself.” Map personas and stakeholders; align journey fixes to shared incentives.
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“Every battle is won before it is fought.” Pre-align stakeholders before journey rollout; avoid resistance during execution.
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“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” Use customer pain signals to create urgency across stakeholder groups.
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“He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.” Prioritise key pain points; escalate only where stakeholder pushback matters.
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“Speed is the essence of war.” Close feedback loops quickly; align teams while customer context is fresh.
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“All warfare is based on deception.” Don’t trust stated alignment; confirm via ownership, resources, and action.
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“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” Design journeys that naturally align teams; reduce need for escalation.
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“Opportunities multiply as they are seized.” Turn pilot wins into cross-team adoption; scale alignment with proof.
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“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war.” Build stakeholder coalition before launching journey transformation initiatives.
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“If quick, I survive. If not quick, I am lost.” Resolve friction fast; delays erode both customer trust and stakeholder support.
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“Treat your men as you would your own sons.” Understand stakeholder constraints; co-create solutions respecting their realities.
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“The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.” Embed fixes into systems; reduce recurring dependency on stakeholder intervention.
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“Plan for what is difficult while it is easy.” Anticipate edge cases and objections; align before complexity surfaces.
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“Engage people with what they expect.” Frame journey fixes in stakeholder KPIs; speak their operational language.
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“Move swift as the wind and closely-formed as the wood.” Execute rapidly; maintain tight coordination across journey touchpoints.
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“To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy.” Walk journeys yourself; think like both customer and internal stakeholders.
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“Build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat across.” Provide face-saving paths; let stakeholders adopt changes without friction.
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“The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy.” Keep customer journeys simple; manage internal complexity behind the scenes.
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“What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease.” Make journeys effortless; make alignment feel obvious, not forced.
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“Ponder and deliberate before you make a move.” Sequence journey changes and stakeholder influence deliberately for maximum impact.
Two and a half millennia separate the battlefield from the journey map. The human dynamics haven’t moved an inch — and neither has the core problem.
Sun Tzu never managed a CX roadmap, but he understood it anyway — the map is never the hard part. Getting people to move together is.