Sun Tzu’s The Art of War was written over 2,500 years ago.
And yet, its principles feel oddly tailored for contact center leadership.
Why? Because whether you’re commanding an army or managing QA in a high-volume support team, the challenges are the same:
🧠 Strategic thinking
🎯 Tactical execution
📊 Clear information
💬 Human dynamics
Let’s translate Sun Tzu’s most famous lessons into the world of contact center quality—and explore how his ancient wisdom aligns with today’s best QA and performance management practices.
🧭 1. “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”
In CX, the “enemy” isn’t your customers—it’s friction. It’s escalation. It’s inconsistency.
And your frontline is only as effective as their awareness of:
- Their own performance patterns
- The most common customer frustrations
- The systemic root causes behind repeat contacts
According to Edmondson (1999), psychological safety and honest reflection are key to team learning. The best QA programs help agents “know themselves” through thoughtful, personalized feedback.
QA Takeaway:
- Use QA data to create self-awareness
- Map repeat issues across channels
- Share insights—not just scores
📊 2. “Victorious warriors win first, then go to war. Defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”
Translation: Preparation > reaction.
High-performing QA teams don’t wait for things to break.
They coach proactively. They design scorecards aligned to business outcomes. They train before trouble starts.
As McKinsey (2022) notes, predictive QA and coaching systems reduce escalations by up to 30%, saving time and improving CSAT.
QA Takeaway:
- Use early-warning QA metrics (e.g. empathy gaps, low FCR) to coach ahead of issues
- Build scorecards that predict outcomes—not just reflect past ones
- Prep your agents for success, not survival
🧠 3. “The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy, so that he cannot fathom our real intent.”
Great advice in war.
Terrible advice in customer experience. 😅
Customers—and agents—thrive in clarity.
In Daniel Kahneman’s cognitive load theory, unclear expectations increase mental strain and lead to worse decisions under pressure.
In QA, vague scorecards and fuzzy feedback do the same.
QA Takeaway:
- Use behavioral anchors (not just “be professional”)
- Make feedback actionable, not abstract
- Deliver coaching in digestible, focused chunks
🔄 4. “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.”
Call spikes. System outages. Angry customers.
The moments that seem most chaotic often hold the richest data.
Research from the Journal of Applied Psychology shows that high-pressure interactions reveal more about agent skill, resilience, and training gaps than low-stakes ones.
QA Takeaway:
- Flag “chaos calls” for special review
- Look for patterns in escalations, not just one-offs
- Use QA during peak periods to inform ops strategy
⚖️ 5. “He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.”
In contact centers, this means knowing:
- When to escalate
- When to apologize
- When to hold the line
- When to flex
And teaching agents how to make those decisions through QA-based coaching is what separates average teams from elite ones.
According to Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985), employees thrive when they feel autonomous—but supported. Great QA builds that exact foundation.
QA Takeaway:
- Coach for judgment, not just compliance
- Allow for agent autonomy within a clear structure
- Reinforce critical thinking, not just process-following
🏁 Final Thought: The Best Contact Centers Are Built Like Strategic Armies
Sun Tzu didn’t have dashboards.
But he did understand the value of: ✅ Preparation
✅ Intelligence
✅ Human insight
✅ Operational flexibility
Modern QA leaders can apply those same values to build CX programs that are:
- Data-informed
- Coaching-first
- Outcome-aligned
- Agent-empowering
Because QA isn’t just about tracking performance.
It’s about designing a winning system—where every agent is ready for the next “battle,” and every customer walks away feeling like they’ve been heard, helped, and respected.
📚 References
- Sun Tzu. The Art of War. Trans. Lionel Giles, 1910.
- Edmondson, A. C. (1999). Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383.
- McKinsey & Company. (2022). The Value of Customer Experience, Quantified. Retrieved from www.mckinsey.com
- Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior. Springer Science & Business Media.
- Journal of Applied Psychology. (2016). Stress and Decision-Making in High-Pressure Service Roles.