Making of Plans

Master Sun seems knowledgeable enough, and his simplicity is refreshing: do this and you will lose, do that and you will win. The choices that one can make to win or lose, though they appear simple because of his curt wording, are in fact complicated processes. For example 'If the enemy is full, be prepared' has many more implications than it is letting on. Thereby, most of what Sun Tzu says is more like an outline of an outline which must be applied.

The Five Fundamentals that Master Sun presents are:

The Way,
Heaven,
Earth,
Command,
Discipline

They way seems an awful lot like our definition of leadership, in that he who possesses the way is the one that men will follow without wavering. The Way is the most important among these for it determines Command and Discipline as well.

Heaven is the consideration of climate, weather, and season. It is not for nothing that we go over weather and temperature in OPORDs, if you're out in the middle of the desert for the entire day in the blazing sun you'd better be equipped to hydrate and have a plan on when and how to do it. Heaven does not mean mobilizing your troops during WWII in Russia so that they will be caught by deep winter and reduced to shreds because you are an idiot.

Earth affects all missions because all missions are terrain dependent. Move stealthily, keeping your head on a swivel through thick brush, and knowing how to navigate terrain by map is all essential. Using geographical features to your advantage or navigating by them falls under Earth.

Command is something that falls under The Way because it is part of what makes men follow a leader. It means knowing how to create and sustain the moral of an army.

Discipline is simple enough, your men should know their punishments and rewards and you should not shrink back from delivering either. Knowing the chain of command is something else that can be recognized in TLP and is presented in OPORDs.