Sun Zi said: Generals that are willing to listen and execute based on our assessment and plans will help us achieve victory

孫子曰：將聽吾計，用之必勝，留之﹔將不聽吾計，用之必敗，去之。

Sun Zi said:
Generals that are willing to listen and execute based on our assessment and plans will help us achieve victory, we need to retain them; those that are unwilling to do so will lead us to failure. We should remove them.


Parallel to Project Management
In a project environment, it is critical for the project manager to have some key project members (his generals) that he can count on to support him all the time. He can make all his assessments and then come up with a good project plan to run the project, but he will need the help of his key members (generals) to help him execute the plans successfully. If the key members are supportive of his plans and are helping him execute his plans successfully, then he should try his best to retain these key members in the project team.

On the other hand, if he is unable to count on a particular member who is holding a key position within his team (a general), or this key member is not aligned to his plans, and do not want to execute according to his plans, then by keeping this member in the project, there is a good chance that your plans will not be executed well, and the project will fail eventually. It is therefore important that this person need to be removed from the project team as early as possible.