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42Principle · Group 6 · Anchor principle

Rhythm and Timing

Strategic timing

“If you read the tempo of a situation, you act at the right moment, give others a reliable rhythm or throw your opponent off their stride.”

Every situation has a tempo: phases of tension and of release, moments when someone commits and moments when they are open.

Group 6: Time and TempoT2 Eastern Strategy
Go to the in-depth section ↓
A teal circle pulses steadily, and with each beat an arc rises; a golden dot watches and settles exactly into the gap between two beats. Then the golden dot itself pulses in a calm rhythm, and many small mist-blue dots fall into line and swing along with it.
In short

If you read the tempo of a situation, you act at the right moment, give others a reliable rhythm or throw your opponent off their stride.

What it’s about: Every situation has a tempo: phases of tension and of release, moments when someone commits and moments when they are open. The principle has two sides. Timing is the right moment for an action, because the same request can come too early, too late or at exactly the right time. Rhythm is the regular sequence in which people and organizations move.

In depth

The principle in detail

Three steps through the principle: grasp it, place it, put it to work. Open each topic on its own.

The core messageCore statement and 3 clarifications
In essence

People adjust to rhythms. If you pay attention to this, you can fulfill an expectation and so give people something to hold on to, or break it and so surprise them.

It does not say
That the right moment can be calculated. Usually you only recognize it in hindsight, and if you wait for the perfect moment, you can easily miss it.
It does not say
That a favorable moment alone makes for the right timing. In 2017, with a large lead in the polls, Theresa May called a snap election and lost her majority.
It also says
Disrupting other people’s rhythm just to unsettle them is a misuse of the principle.
The explanationIf you know the tempo, you can fit into it, set it yourself or deliberately interrupt it.
  • If you know the tempo, you can fit into it, set it yourself or deliberately interrupt it.
  • To do that, you do not have to be stronger or faster, only more attentive.
  • A rhythm that is too rigid, however, becomes predictable, and if you use tempo to unsettle others, you damage trust.
The question

What is called for in your situation right now, and who is setting the tempo?

The signs3 signs when you heed it · 3 when you overlook it
When you heed it
  • Your team knows fixed times for exchanging information and making decisions.
  • You hold difficult conversations when the other person is able to listen.
  • At the halfway point of a project, you check whether the course is still right.
When you overlook it
  • Meetings are canceled or postponed at short notice.
  • You raise things as soon as they occur to you, even in passing in the hallway.
  • Or you wait for the right moment for so long that it has passed.
The backgroundFrom Miyamoto Musashi’s “The Book of Five Rings” (Japan, 1645). · T2 Eastern Strategy
  1. 1645
    OriginMiyamoto Musashi

    The Book of Five Rings

  2. 1988
    SupplementedConnie J. G. Gersick

    Time and Transition in Work Teams

  3. 1996
    SupplementedDeborah G. Ancona and Chee-Leong Chong

    Entrainment: Pace, Cycle, and Rhythm in Organizational Behavior

  4. Tradition T2
    TraditionEastern Strategy

    Sun Tzu, Kautilya, the Thirty-Six Stratagems, the Tao Te Ching, Miyamoto Musashi, François Jullien

    See the tradition on the Origin page
Read more: the full background

From Miyamoto Musashi’s “The Book of Five Rings” (Japan, 1645). Supplemented by organizational research on temporal rhythms by Connie J. G. Gersick and by Deborah G. Ancona and Chee-Leong Chong.

The research3 sources: 1 classic, 1 primary study, 1 theory · 1645–1996 · with limitations of the research
3 sources1645–1996 period1 classic1 primary study1 theory
Strength of evidence
  1. weak
  2. moderate
  3. strong

It is well documented that teams and organizations follow rhythms; that acting at the right moment or breaking a rhythm has an effect rests on experience and on a classic.

  1. 1645
    Classic
    Miyamoto Musashi

    “The Book of Five Rings”: timing is a principle of combat; dance, music and trade also have a rhythm.

  2. 1988
    Primary study
    Connie J. G. Gersick

    “Time and Transition in Work Teams”: eight project teams each changed their way of working halfway through the time until their deadline, regardless of how long the project lasted.

  3. 1996
    Theory
    Deborah G. Ancona and Chee-Leong Chong

    “Entrainment: Pace, Cycle, and Rhythm in Organizational Behavior”: organizations attune their pace to external rhythms.

Where the research reaches its limits
  • The right moment can rarely be calculated; usually it can only be recognized in hindsight.
  • If you wait for the perfect moment, you can miss it, and a rhythm that is too well known will be exploited by your opponent.
  • Connie J. G. Gersick’s study is based on eight teams that were not randomly selected.
  • That disrupting an opponent’s rhythm works is claimed only by Miyamoto Musashi and has not been measured.
  • Timing is therefore less a technique than an attitude of attentiveness.
Read more: what research shows

The classic source is “The Book of Five Rings,” written in 1645 by the Japanese sword master Miyamoto Musashi. He describes timing as a principle of combat: everything has a rhythm, dance and music as much as the life of a warrior, and a fighter must recognize the rhythm of his opponent. In 1988, Connie J. G. Gersick followed eight project teams from their first meeting to their deadline. Each team kept its initial way of working until about halfway through the available time and then changed it fundamentally, triggered by the approaching deadline rather than by the state of the work. In 1996, Deborah G. Ancona and Chee-Leong Chong described how organizations adapt their pace to external rhythms such as fiscal years, trade fairs and seasons.

The related principles25 OODA Loop · 32 Surprise · 41 Speed · 91 Potential of the Situation
SpeedPotential of the Situation

To go deeper, see 41 Speed (fast is only good if it fits the tempo of the situation) and 91 Potential of the Situation (the right moment often arises from a situation you allow to ripen)

Surprise

32 Surprise shows what happens when an expected rhythm breaks

OODA Loop

25 OODA Loop applies the idea to the opponent’s decision cycle

Read more: the full text

To go deeper, see 41 Speed (fast is only good if it fits the tempo of the situation) and 91 Potential of the Situation (the right moment often arises from a situation you allow to ripen); 32 Surprise shows what happens when an expected rhythm breaks. 25 OODA Loop applies the idea to the opponent’s decision cycle.

The action steps5 things you can actually do
  1. Give your team a fixed rhythm: a regular short meeting that takes place even when there is little to discuss.

  2. For two weeks, observe when decisions are made in your area and when people are open to new ideas, and note the pattern.

  3. Before an important conversation, ask yourself: why now? What would speak for waiting a week?

  4. Make deliberate use of the halfway point of a project for a review and a possible course correction.

  5. Check where your own rhythm has become so rigid that others exploit it or chafe against it, and change one thing.

The reflection questions3 questions: What fixed rhythm does your team have, and does it hold even in busy weeks?
  1. What fixed rhythm does your team have, and does it hold even in busy weeks?
  2. Which conversation do you want to have, and how will you recognize the right moment for it?
  3. Where has your rhythm become so predictable that others adjust to it without it doing you or them any good?

Take your time with one question. Write down your answer – or talk it over with someone you trust.

To finish
The picture to rememberThe animation once more, with an explanation
  1. A teal circle pulses steadily, and with each beat an arc rises
  2. A golden dot watches and settles exactly into the gap between two beats
  3. Then the golden dot itself pulses in a calm rhythm, and many small mist-blue dots fall into line and swing along with it
Strategy Check

What rhythm does your team have?

Get your profile across all 12 groups in about 10 to 15 minutes.

Start the Strategy Check
In context

Group 6: Time and Tempo

Guiding question: When do you act, and how fast?

Stage 3 of 5: Choose the path

  • Anchor principle of the group

    It answers the “when” of the guiding question; speed, initiative and the choice between a quick blow and a long haul all depend on the right moment.

    The other 4 principles in the group build on it.

  • TraditionEastern Strategy

    Sun Tzu, Kautilya, the Thirty-Six Stratagems, the Tao Te Ching, Miyamoto Musashi, François Jullien

Where the 92 principles come from: eight traditions of strategy, from classical war theory to dealing with uncertainty.

More about the origin

Background: WEGVISOR’s own selection from the strategy literature · More about the origin

Examples

The principle in practice

From the different spheres of society.

Culture & Sports

Antonín Panenka, the Belgrade Penalty and the Principle of Rhythm and Timing

In the final of the 1976 European Championship, Antonín Panenka runs up to take the last penalty, waits until Sepp Maier dives and gently chips the ball into the middle of the goal. He wins because he knows the goalkeeper’s rhythm and breaks it.

Rhythm and Timing
Media

Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers and the Principle of Rhythm and Timing

Starting in 1836, Charles Dickens’s “The Pickwick Papers” appears in monthly installments at one shilling each. The first part sells poorly, the last 40,000 copies, because a steady rhythm turns readers into people who wait.

Rhythm and Timing
Government

Theresa May, the 2017 Snap Election and the Principle of Rhythm and Timing

In April 2017, Theresa May is up to 21 points ahead in the polls and calls an early election. Seven weeks later she has lost her absolute majority, because a favorable moment alone does not make the right timing.

Rhythm and Timing
Culture & SportsEducation

Movie: Whiplash

In Damien Chazelle’s 2014 film, a conductor uses tempo as an instrument of power and repeatedly and deliberately throws his young drummer out of rhythm. In the end, the student takes over the beat himself and forces the conductor to follow him.

Rhythm and Timing
FAQ

Questions about the Principle of Rhythm and Timing

What does the Principle of Rhythm and Timing say?

Every situation has a tempo. You can act at the right moment, set a reliable rhythm yourself or disrupt your opponent’s rhythm. What matters is not strength but attention to the moment.

Where does the Principle of Rhythm and Timing come from?

It goes back above all to Miyamoto Musashi’s “The Book of Five Rings” from 1645. Organizational research, for example by Connie J. G. Gersick, shows that teams and organizations also follow internal and external rhythms.

What are some examples of Rhythm and Timing?

Antonín Panenka’s penalty in the final of the 1976 European Championship, the monthly publication of “The Pickwick Papers” and, as a counterexample, Theresa May’s 2017 snap election.

How well is the Principle of Rhythm and Timing supported by research?

Evidence: weak – it is well documented that teams and organizations follow rhythms; that acting at the right moment or breaking a rhythm has an effect rests on experience and on a classic.

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