This blog post discusses the global student program called SIFE, so it might not be of interest to people who have never been involved with the program. But if you know SIFE or want to know SIFE please read on.

SIFE is global charity that encourages university and college students to make a difference in their community. These students work in teams to encourage entrepreneurship and community development. There are many times that the advice contained in the Art of War would be helpful to SIFE Teams. This blog post will focus on one particular quote from Chapter three: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

This is definitely one of the more popular passages from the Art of War. For a SIFE team it can be good advice in many situations. For this blog post I would like to focus on participating in the SIFE competition. The co-author of the Learn the Art of War eBook and I were both involved with SIFE. I was a student member, a SIFE Staff member, and now a volunteer judge at competitions. I have seen the SIFE competition many times and from all angles.

For the purpose of this post I would like SIFE Students to think of the judges at the competition as the enemy. This is actually a distortion of the relationship since judges love helping the teams providing feedback. The SIFE Judge is a volunteer that is critical to the success of the program so I hesitate to call them the enemy, but hear me out. When a SIFE Team walks into a room all judges are ignorant of how the team’s projects fit within the SIFE criterion. It is this ignorance that must be attacked. If you do not understand the judge you will not be able to convince them you should win.

So let us first look at how to “know your enemy”… the judges. One thing you might want to do is talk to a representative from your SIFE National office and ask him or her about the judge panels. In some cases the judges might be a mix of seniority levels and experience, in other cases you might find a judge panel is all senior executives, while another is mostly junior business people.

Another important fact to try and find out is what number of the judges are repeating judges. A new judge might need more explanation about how your projects fit the criterion than a repeating judge. This point was very important to consider in the 2010-2011 school year since the SIFE Criterion was completely new, which basically meant that all judges were first time judges.

After you find out about the specific judge panel you will be facing you should think about some considerations that I think hold true for almost all judges.

From my experience in the judging room and talking with many people involved with the SIFE judging process there are two things that a judge needs to see from a presentation, and they are quite different. One is numbers. Judges always complain that teams do not give them enough numbers and relevant measurements. If you put yourself in the position of a judge you can see why. A judge must compare teams that run completely different programs in completely different communities that tackle completely different issues. In some ways it is like comparing apples and oranges. Numbers are one way to help a judge who might be confused.

The second most important thing a team must do is show a personal connection to the project. This is when a team shows exactly how their project impacted the life a specific person or group of people. Often this is done with a testimonial of some kind. When the presentation can make this connection it helps the judge remember the team. It also helps the project and impact seem more real. So many teams have so many great projects that a judge might end up becoming numb to all of the good things being done, when they can make a mental connection between a team and person whose life their helped, it will result in a much stronger affection for the team and its projects.

In most cases the judges will find themselves in a situation where they are making a decision on a topic that they are not an expert in. The SIFE Criterion is both simple and complex at the same time. While every team has been given the same challenge, they all tackle it differently. As mentioned above this difference makes it hard for the judges to decide. One piece of advice I often give teams is that they must walk a fine line between being simple and strait forward in the presentation and not treating the judges like idiots. You must make it simple for them to understand, but at the some time respect that these are often very intelligent people.

These are the main things you must know about your opponent, the judges. The numbers and testimonials that are required to give a good presentation are not automatically collected when a team runs a project. A team must go out of their way to collect them. This leads to the other side of the Sun Tzu quote… know yourself.

If a team does not fully understand what they have accomplished, there is no way a judge will ever know. Measurements are the number one tool for establishing the impact of your program. Measurement of your project must be planned and then executed just like any other part of your program. Teams often neglect to take the most important final step with measurements… follow up.

When you go back to an audience after the project this is where you can really find out what impact you had. Keeping the relationship with your audience alive is also important for getting the testimonials you need later for your presentation.

As a team it is also you responsibility to fully understand the SIFE Criterion. Every year there are students that present that do not fully appreciate how exactly their projects hit the Criterion. If the team does not know, they cannot expect the judges to figure it out on their own.

Some of this advice may seem very simple, but so many SIFE Teams do not seem to understand it. Every year there are teams around the world that have good projects that lose to teams with lesser projects. The fault almost always lies with the losing team not knowing the judges and not knowing their own projects and how they relate to the criterion. This becomes even more important with you get the final round of a National competition or SIFE World Cup. At these higher levels every team is good. The teams that does their homework on the judges and fully understands their own program is the team that will have the advantage.

As a reward for reading the entire blog post, here is a special discount code for 10%: SIFE