Use example of "besiege Wei.." - a fight for remote control

If you think that these strategies and techniques can be used only in complex situations, here is a good example of the opposite. Yesterday my wife has shown me how well women have mastered the "besiege Wei to save Zhao" strategy - described here.

Here is the story :).
Late in the night we where lying in the bed and jokingly fighting for the control of the TV remote. Well, it seemed that in the end I have won, when, all of a sudden, she picked up the pillow and the blanket and said with resolution "OK, have it your way, but then I go sleep on the coach in the living room!". Well, as you would guess, I had really no choice but to give in :) - I didn't want to sleep alone over some joking fight.
And that was exactly the point of her counterattack - once it was clear that she will not be able to wrestle the remote out of my hands.

Strategies:
Besiege Wei to save Zhao.

Strategy: "Besiege Wèi to rescue Zhào"

This is one of the 36 Chinese stratagems.

When it is hard to defend against the attack
and the enemy and/or his defenses are too strong -
attack something that he holds dear.

The name of the strategy was given after this story:
The state of Wèi attacked Zhao with the full force of its army and laid siege to its capital.
Zhao turned to its allies for help and they launched an attack on Wei's capital thus forcing the army of Wei had to rush home - abandoning the siege.
On their way home they were ambushed and defeated.

An example of this strategy application in fighting:
If somebody grabs your lapel and you launch an attack at his groin, eyes or throat, he will promptly shift his focus to the attacked point, thus allowing you to easily escape his hold.

A true story.

In a mid size company, its IT department manager has discovered that the security (SO) officer of the company is trying to gain some more power in the company. In this case - come control over the IT department. To this end the SO persuaded CEO of the company to allow him to conduct some security analysis of the company's network. He considered it to be a good opening for gaining some control over IT.

You bet, the IT dept. manager didn't like the idea. The IT manager (ITM) tried to dissuade first the SO, then the CEO, but couldn't win the argument. The CEO - having already given the permission to the security officer - didn't want to change it, even though he was explained that bringing in an external company that will run intrusive tests presents a security risk in itself.
The IT manager seemed to have lost the battle, when on one of the following days he wrote an e-mail to the CEO, saying that he will give all the help required to the SO and the security analysts, yet cannot, under the circumstances, be responsible for the security risk from the actions of the external company (he cited the risks).

Now the CEO didn't like it. The next day he gave the IT manager the power to control and supervise the testing, thus giving the IT manager control over the SO actions. Just the opposite of what SO wanted to achieve!

Strategy-wise - the IT manager withdrew all the resistance ("rolled back" as in tomoe nage), but now the CEO will get all the responsibility for the risk ("flip and crash").

Here two strategies were involved.
1. "Kill with a borrowed knife" - the IT manager defended against the attack of the SO using the CEO.
2. "Let him have it and regret!" - the secondary, ensuing conflict with the CEO was won by using the sudden withdrawal of resistance - and thus leading him into undesired position.
See definition of the "Let him have it and regret!" strategy and other examples of it's use here.

"Carrot, rather than the stick"

Sometimes carrot works better then the stick.
Well, may be even most times.
Here are two examples of ingenious use of the "carrot".
I believe they where given by a professor at Boston University.

1. A secretary, due to various problems at home with a kid, was
arriving late to the office on a regular basis.
Every time she was "terribly sorry", but it continued.
Since it was the only problem with her and otherwise she
was very valued by the boss, he didn't want to use the "stick".
So, he decided to use the carrot. From that day on,
whenever she showed up for work on time - he would be
a bit extra nice to her, while if she was late - just
"neutral". After just a couple of weeks she started to arrive
on time!

2. At some small company an office manager started to dress
a little bit more provocative then it was comfortable for the
others. It was such a little bit too much that the boss really
didn't want to make an issue out of it. So, instead of commenting
negatively on the way she dresses, he started paying her
little compliments (obviously within the limits) on how well
she looks each time when she dressed less provocatively! Within a couple of weeks she changed her
dressing style to a tolerable level.