Surfaces and Gaps, Killing Grounds, Strategy and Conversation

On Monday night I had dinner with Patrick Lambe , David Gurteen , Mark Blackburn and Patrick Byrne . There was no purpose to the dinner other than to enjoy each others company. The conversation was wide-ranging and stimulating. We talked about subjects ranging from axiology and ethics, to science fiction writers and physicists, and even killing grounds, surfaces and gaps! It was a great night, and some of the conversation is worth recounting (as best as I can remember it).

David Gurteen told us about an abbey in England, which is surrounded by World War II pillboxes and dragon’s teeth . (Unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the abbey or the town). David was intrigued by the location of the dragon’s teeth, and initially couldn’t understand why they were where they were. From the description David provided, Patrick Byrne and I as former soldiers immediately recognised that they were obstacles designed to channel and concentrate an enemy force into a killing ground of choice. This discussion then led to talk about how military strategy can be applied to business and even knowledge management. In particular we talked about surfaces and gaps, Schwerpunkt and Auftragstaktik .

Patrick Byrne has a paper called ‘Designing an Emergent Capability Based Strategy’ , which was published in the Australian Defence Force Journal No. 163 November/ December 2003 . The paper tries to show that military strategy has a lot to teach business and that much of the ‘guru speak’ in management literature is not necessarily new or innovative. It is well worth a read and has in my view considerable applicability to the knowledge management discipline.

Later in the evening the talk turned to Norman Dixon’s classic book - ‘On the Psychology of Military Incompetence’. A few political leaders and some knowledge managers should read this book – the world might be a better place for it!

All in all it was a stimulting and educative night. It proved informal unstructured discussions over a meal are valuable and matter. We don’t do it enough!

Regards, Graham.



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