“Hail your Royal Majesty, Emperor Rahadikatu!”

“Oh, Sokiratiski, there is no need for you to stand on ceremony with me”, replied the emperor, waving his visitor to a seat. “You know how much I value the advice that you give, and that is why once again I have summoned you hear to put before you a problem that I have having.”

Sokiratiski, the wise old man took a nearby seat. “I hope it is nothing as serious as the problem you were having a while back trying to work out a way of increasing revenue for the empire?”

“Oh no, not at all. The suggestion you made worked perfectly. However, the problem is less to do with advice itself, it is more to do with an advisor.” The emperor cleared his throat and went on. “You see, my oldest and most trusted advisor, Aristotu recently retired from my service. He said that he had given over forty years of service to me and my father, and now he wanted to retire so that he could spend more time with his family.”

Sokiratisi reflected for a moment. He knew Aristotu; the man had superb insight and was well known for his sound advice. He would definitely be missed.

“My commiserations, Your Majesty. I know what a valuable and trusted aide you have lost.” He gave a meaningful look at the emperor and added, “It is a pity that I am much too old for the role – nothing would have given me greater pleasure than serving Your Majesty in this capacity.”

The emperor laughed. “I will not ask you how guessed that I might ask you to join my court as personal advisor - I think you know me too well. Well, you cannot blame me for trying to ask you once again.” Sokiratiski smiled at this - the emperor had been trying to get him to act as one of his personal advisors for a long time. Unfortunately for the emperor, Sokiratisi cherished the freedom and independence that came with being on his own too much to give it up, even for the riches and status of the emperor’s court.

“Well, Your Majesty, I may not be able to act as your advisor, but I can certainly help you in your search for a perfect replacement for Aristotu.”

The emperor leaned forward. “How? It is very hard getting good advisors these days. I hate to say this, but none of the other advisors in my court seem to give advice anywhere near as good as he did.”

Sokiratisi smiled. “I do not see this as a problem of scarcity of good advisors, but more of a problem on deciding who a good advisor is. I am sure that amongst your millions of subjects, there exist at least a few hundred who are able to give gilt-edged advice.”

“So what would you look for in a good advisor?”

“Well it depends on what kind of advisor you want, Your Majesty. There are advisors who will simply nod and say ‘yes’ to whatever you say. There are those who are good at telling you what you want to hear. And then there those who will give you advice that may be quite hurtful to hear but which is ultimately given with your long-term interest in view.”

The emperor made an impatient gesture. “Stop playing games with me, Sokiratisi! Of what use to me is an advisor who only tells me what I want to hear? Of course I am looking for the last kind of advisor that you mentioned!”

Sokiratisi bowed apologetically. “I am sorry, Your Majesty, but I did not want to make assumptions – there really are rulers out there who believe that their advisors’ ability to sing their praises is very important. Anyway, I will answer your original question. There are eight things in particular that I would be looking for in a good advisor of the type you describe.”

The emperor’s eyes shone with interest. “I am listening.”

“The first thing I would look for is the ability of the advisor to listen. A royal advisor is like a skilled chef – he has to prepare the finest words of advice to be consumed by his king. But he cannot do this if he does not have the finest ingredients available. And in the world of advice, the raw material is information. Accurate, detailed, unbiased information of all types and from all sources.

“Of course, the first occasion on which the advisor will usually get information regarding the issue he is supposed to advise on will be when he is summoned to the king for advice. At this stage, he will have to acknowledge and suspend his biases and prejudices so that he can listen to what the king is saying with an open mind. And listening is not just about keeping quiet and making the occasional sound to indicate you are not asleep. It is about creating an atmosphere where the speaker feels they can say whatever they want to say, no matter how embarrassing, difficult or private the matter might be. It is about saying not just with your words (or lack of them), but with your face, your hands, your body – every part of you – the one phrase: “I am listening”.

“But it is no good just allowing the king to come out with all this information without being able to processing and structuring what he is saying. The challenge here is to determine what is relevant and what isn’t. So the first thing to do is to try and establish what the central issue is. Sometimes, this may be as simple as asking the king what the problem is and getting a straight answer. At other times, it may not be so straightforward because even the king himself may not know what the problem is. Where this happens, the advisor can try to guess what the issue is from what the king has said, based on how often the king has mentioned certain issues in his speech and in what tone he has mentioned them. He can then confirm his guess with the king. Once the advisor has a good idea of what the issue is, he can then filter anything else the king says based on its relevance to the issue at hand.

“The second thing that a good advisor should have is the ability to ask questions to get relevant information out. Obviously the advisor would need to have established what the issue requiring advice is first (as mentioned previously). He can then ask open-ended questions that begin “How…?” “When…?” “Where…?” “Who…?” “What…?” and “Why…?” and that invite even more information on the issue.

However, tact is quite important when asking questions that are intended to draw out information. Sometimes, asking the right question in the wrong way means that the person you are asking the question of misinterprets your motive and suddenly becomes uncooperative. And if that person happens to be a king, then God help you, because he can do much more than simply refuse to volunteer any more information!”

The emperor chuckled at this. “But I take it that this questioning is not just for the king?”

“Not at all, Your Majesty. In fact, it is impossible for the king to know everything pertaining to the issue. The idea is that the advisor establishes enough of what the issue is to know where else to seek information from, whether it is from farmers, traders, soldiers or craftsmen. In all these cases, when questioning these people, the same sort of approach should be adopted as when questioning the king.

However, there may be times when asking may not be enough, as either nobody knows the answer or nobody is willing to volunteer a direct answer. In this case, the advisor may have to devise an experiment to find out what he needs to know. For example, he may wish to find out whether or not a new taxation system is likely to yield more revenue or not. Asking people is not likely to yield a conclusive answer, because what people say often differs from what they do. In this instance, he may have to set up a pilot of the system in a part of the kingdom and then project what the behaviour of the rest of the kingdom’s citizens will be.

“Interesting!” exclaimed Emperor Rahadikatu. “All this, and you have only touched on two of the eight qualities.”

“Yes, Your Majesty… but unfortunately, I have spoken for quite a while and as much as I would like to go on, I would like to break for a while for refreshements.”

“Of course! My servants will provide whatever you desire to eat and drink. And when you are done, return so that I may hear the remaining six.”

Robot  # 1 | 16.10.2005 12:21

Link to the article is here

ADEBAYO ADEJARE  # 2 | 17.10.2005 10:59

As a consciencious SHOKO Devotee I am mad at you. I was just savouring this excellent intellectual dish a.k.a \"algorithm design\" when you broke it. Please serve the full dish for I am salivating. Cheers.

Shoko  # 3 | 17.10.2005 14:23

Adebayo, Thanks for the compliments. Unfortunately, I\'m snowed under with all sorts of work right now - in fact, the article has been a work in progress for the last two or three months, and I absolutely had to forcemyself to get it to this point, otherwise I would never have published it. But now that it\'s out, I\'m committed to finishing it... I hope to have the sequel out before the end of next month at the latest, or earlier (if time and mood permit). My sincere apologies for the delay. Shoko

CUO Umunnah  # 4 | 17.10.2005 21:45

Hello Shoko Loko - Thanks for posting this emperoral, ancestoral powerplay, kings and subjects back in the days; it\'s also a reflection of Biblical and other Scriptural and traditional practices before the British turned Nigeria upside-down. May I add that, it\'s beautifully written. I can picture King Solomon of old and his cabinet in trial court. In the court, the case of two women that was brought before him regarding a dead child and a living child. How he setimentally and meticulously applied himself to the law; with wisdom from God, he adjudicated that case and came up with a verdict. Anyways, it was pretty and I was salivating for more and you ended it just too early. Like Adebayo had expressed it\'s short while looked ou for more. I look forward to your next piece: part two, three and four et al. Thank you sincerely - CUU