The 48 Laws of Power (48 Laws of authority) (Category Management)

I took some paper books with me on vacation, including this book by Robert Greene.48 the law of authority”. The first time I read her order. 20 Years ago, she seemed cynical and manipulative to the point of being impossible.) But I thought I'd read it again, because I've been here ever since. reader Machiavelli and Sun Tzu, The Art of War. This book is written in their style and contains 48 Laws of power, each of which is accompanied by theoretical justifications and historical examples. Green uses anecdotes from the lives of historical figures such as Louis XIV, Talleyrand, Otto von Bismarck, Catherine the Great and Mao Zedong to illustrate the practical application of his rules. If the book was written by IT experts, they would call it.48 Patterns of Laws, as the structure is similar to a typical pattern book, for example,Design Patterns", "Technology Strategy Patterns"or"Enterprise Integration Patterns" According to the author, the book helps to "look into the fundamental characteristics of power and the ways of its conquest, understanding and confrontation."

All 48 We will not list the laws here, but we will remember a few basic ones. 1) Never outshine the master. The idea is to always make your boss feel smarter and more important than you. 2) Hide your intentions.. The idea is to keep people in the dark about their plans. When Microsoft announced that it was buying GitHub “to support the open-source community,” no one said, “We want data on millions of developers and their projects to train our AI assistant Copilot.” There was no copylot at that time. 3) Let others work for you, but always take credit.. An example from the IT world At Apple, product design came from Jony Ive, although hundreds of designers work on each product. At Amazon, big projects were "Jeff Bezos's initiatives," no matter who invented it. 4) Learn to make people dependent on you. To be independent, you need to be wanted and needed. Examples from the IT world When the manager provides job-security due to the opacity of processes and web of connections. When Apple created an entire ecosystem of devices. Buy an iPhone? Now you need AirPods. Then the MacBook because they work so well together. And now the Apple Watch. And iCloud+. And AppleTV+... 5) Make your accomplishments seem easy.. IT companies often talk about “launching a new feature” without focusing on the fact that it can take hundreds of man-years.

I hope you've already realized that48 The Laws of Power is not so much a practical guide as a mirror reflecting the dark side of human nature and social interactions. The book is in many ways reminiscent of Grigory Oster’s Harmful Advice – if you take it literally and follow every advice, you can not only fail, but also make a lot of problems. Many of Greene’s laws are blatantly cynical and sometimes immoral, as the author admits. The book is often criticized for promoting manipulation and Machiavellianism. But its value lies not in following advice directly, but in understanding the mechanisms of power that exist in any organization.

Think about these “laws” if only to recognize when they are being used against you. The book can serve as a vaccine against naivety in the corporate world, where behind the exterior gloss of "flat structures" and "open cultures" often hide the same power mechanisms that existed in the courts of kings centuries ago. So the next time you see unexplained corporate decisions or strange permutations, don’t be surprised.

#Management #Leadership #Politics #Strategy