Business, Capoeira, And Environmental Context

Written by a human, for humans, always.

What is the best way to build a business?

How are you supposed to lead an organization into the future?

You will find lots of opinions online...

Each providing models, strategies, rules, and skill sets that they will tell you are necessary to succeed.

But...

Is any of it true?

Sometimes the best way to make a point...

Is to look at something that may appear to be completely different...

But when you understand truly...

Provides a truth.

With that in mind...

I want to talk about martial arts today.

I have been a martial arts practitioner for over 25 years now...

Which sounds impressive, but I started when I was 5 years old, so take that for what you will.

My primary style was what would today be considered a "Mixed Martial Art"...

Where we learned principles of Tae-Kwon-Do, Karate, Tang-Soo-Do, Hapkido, Judo, Jiu-jitsu, American Boxing, and various principles of Chinese Styles.

But I have also learned, studied, and practiced other styles of martial arts as well...

From Tai-Chi to Chanbara, Aikido to Krav Maga, and more.

I have a love of both the practice of martial arts...

And the history of martial arts.

But among them, there has always been one style that stands out as visually distinct and deeply misunderstood, even within martial arts communities...

Capoeira.

If you were to see a Capoeira practitioner who was training...

You might end up mistaking them for a breakdancer.

Even within groups, you could mistake the sparring match (where fighters face off against each other) as an interesting dance battle where you do not know the rules of the match.

However...

If you were to understand what is taking place...

You would see that the Capoeira practitioner is combining gymnastics, distancing for different moves, self-control, adding extreme momentum to techniques, takedowns, grappling, feints, distractions, and gaining control of the field through complex and unorthodox movements.

All in what appears to be a beautiful dance.

Now, many people will attempt to determine the value of any fighting style within a specific context...

The modern arena or octagon...

Where two fighters will face off against each other, with specific rules determined for the specific context.

You might have the "point system" context where the goal is to be faster and land a "touch" before the opponent while maintaining self-control...

Or you might have the "brawl" context where both opponents are aiming to either knock each other out or land more solid hits to win by points.

There are a few styles that have risen to the top that tend to be the most associated with winning within these contexts.

Tae-Kwon-Do/Karate.

Krav Maga.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu/Judo.

Wrestling.

Muay Thai.

Boxing.

These are the styles that, on average, tend to rise to the top within these contexts.

You know which style is rarely seen?

Capoeira.

Now, this has led to the unfortunate belief that the style is "useless" when it comes to martial arts...

But let me give you a history lesson.

Capoeira was not designed within the context of competitive fighting...

It was designed for survival.

In the 16th century...

African slaves were being transported to Brazil.

As slaves...

Those individuals had no rights.

They were not allowed to practice fighting.

It would be common for slaves to be targeted with violence...

Often, groups attacking individual slaves...

And if the slave did any significant harm to their attackers and was caught...

They would be killed without any remorse.

If a slave were to stand still in any "traditional" fighting stance you might see...

Their attackers might be able to identify them later on.

If a slave were to have no bruises one day and be caught with bruises the next...

They might be suspected as the individual who was fighting and be killed, even if the bruises came from elsewhere.

They did not have the luxury of practicing fighting in the open...

Other fighting methods would likely leave evidence that could be used against them...

And because they had no rights, their only real hope of survival would be escape...

Which is difficult when you are being targeted by multiple opponents.

This is the context in which Capoeira was designed.

The reason that it appears like a dance...

Is because the Capoeira practitioners disguised their fighting techniques as such so that their owners would think nothing of it.

The reason that Capoeira practices distancing, timing, controlling space, and moving or attacking in unorthodox and unpredictable manners...

Is because they needed to be able to move and react quickly if they were being targeted by multiple attackers.

The reason that the style works on fast movements, takedowns, and adding powerful momentum to techniques...

Is because they needed to land blows, get attackers out of the way, make their attackers have difficulty striking, causing them to second-guess attacking, and escape as quickly as possible...

All without being still enough to be identified later on.

Within the specific context that Capoeira was designed...

It is one of the most sophisticated, unique, and powerful styles ever created.

Within its context...

It is brilliant.

One could even argue...

Perfect.

The fact that this style survived through generations of slaves and gained significant notoriety in the modern world is a testament to its survival capabilities.

Now...

Let's refocus on business.

Many people are going to tell you that their models, strategies, rules, and skills that they believe are necessary to success.

The question is not whether or not those are effective...

The question should be about the environmental context of your business.

In martial arts, the context makes a significant difference.

If you had a 16th-century slave attempting to use most styles deemed "better" within an arena or octagon context...

There is an extremely high likelihood they would end up dead...

If not during the battle, then afterward, when they would inevitably be caught with physical evidence of recent fighting or being easily identified.

This is no different than in business.

I recently discussed a version of this in a different article where I went into why Google's "fun environment" and ping-pong tables failed to create the same results in other businesses.

The environmental context always matters.

What works perfectly in one context may completely fail in a different one.

Sometimes the best option is to do things completely differently because of the real environmental context you exist within.

Models, strategies, rules, and skills that work in one environment may be the exact reason you fail in a different environment.

If you want to have success in business...

You need to pay very close attention to the environmental context you exist within.

If you fail to account for that...

You will most likely fail...

Regardless of what others tell you "should" or "will" work within "their" contexts.

There is a reason that many second-time executives fail to produce results, assuming they do not fail outright...

One environmental context is not equal to a different environmental context.

Understand the environmental context you actually exist within.

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