strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter

It is often better to isolate your enemies than to destroy them-you seem less brutal.

Powerful though they may be, people like this can be turned to use.

Here they feel weak, and succumb to deception more easily, which makes them vulnerable.

It can prove a powerful way of bringing people under your spell to seduce or swindle them.

They are vulnerable to you, and your presence becomes magnified.

Find the one head that matters-the person with willpower, or smarts, or, most important of all, charisma.

Search out people who hold high positions yet who find themselves isolated on the board.

Those people who have perhaps lost their knack of communicating with ordinary folk.

People whose power has gone to their heads, and they consider themselves superior.

Find powerful people who have alienated themselves from the group.

Stirrers drive by hiding in the group, disguising their actions among the reactions of others. Understanding who controls the group dynamic is a critical realization.ġ0. Once you recognize who the stirrer is, pointing it out to other people will accomplish a great deal.ĩ. Let one person suffer so that the rest can live in peace.Ĩ.

Do not give them time to stir up anxieties and sow discontent.ħ. Separate them from the group before they become the eye of a whirlpool.Ħ. Do as the Athenians did: Banish them before it is too late.ĥ. Do not attack them, whether directly or indirectly, for they are poisonous in nature and will work underground to destroy you.Ĥ. Once you spot them do not try to reform them or appease them-that will only make things worse.ģ. First, recognize troublemakers by their overbearing presence, or by their complaining nature.Ģ. Act before it becomes impossible to disentangle one strand of misery from another, or to see how the whole thing started.ġ.

Before you know what hit you the dissatisfaction spreads. Within any group, trouble can most often be traced to a single source, the unhappy, chronically dissatisfied one who will always stir up dissension and infect the group with his or her ill ease. Strike at the source of the trouble and the sheep will scatter. Neutralize their influence by isolating or banishing them. Do not wait for the troubles they cause to multiply, do not try to negotiate with them-they are irredeemable. If you allow such people room to operate, others will succumb to their influence. Do not attack them, whether directly or indirectly for they are poisonous in nature and will work underground to destroy you.Trouble can often be traced to a single strong individual-the stirrer, the arrogant underling, the poisoner of goodwill. Once you spot them, do not try to reform them or appease them. Act before it becomes impossible to disentangle one strand of misery from another or to see how the whole thing started.įirst, recognize troublemakers by their overbearing presence or by their complaining nature. Before you know what hit you, the dissatisfaction spreads. The unhappy, the chronically dissatisfied, one who will always stir up dissension and infect the group with his or her ill ease. “Within any group, trouble can be most often traced to a single source. Time after time, these formidable powerful men military leaders, political leaders, would be exiled largely as a result of their flamboyant arrogance. In an archaeological or epigraphical context, ostraca refer to sherds or even small pieces of stone that have writing scratched into them. An ostracon (Greek: ὄστρακον ostrakon, plural ὄστρακα ostraka) is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel.

Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter