Advantage comes from the configuration of a situation rather than from force applied within it.
Sun Tzu compares shi to a round boulder on a steep slope: the energy is in the position, and the push that releases it is trivial. The practical instruction is to spend effort arranging circumstances rather than on the confrontation, because by the time the confrontation arrives its outcome is mostly set.
In practice
- A negotiator who has secured a second supplier before the meeting does not need to argue in it.
- A team that fixes its release process spends no heroism on release night.