Book

The Five Rings

A Framework

for seeing clearly, acting wisely, and improving how teams deliver.

What is it?

The Five Rings is a modern interpretation of Musashi’s timeless principles, translated for the realities of digital delivery.

Each ring represents a way of seeing the world, a pattern of behaviour, and a set of strengths and traps that show up in teams every day.

Used together, the Rings create clarity, alignment and calm decision-making in fast-moving environments.

How the Insight Rigns Developed from The Five Rings

Earth • Water • Fire • Wind • Void

Team Behaviours Made Visible

Each Ring highlights a different way your team approaches work — grounding (Earth), adapting (Water), acting (Fire), widening perspective (Wind), or pausing for clarity (Void).
This turns invisible habits into shared understanding.

Your Actual Challenges, Not Hypotheticals

Teams bring real delivery issues, blockers, dependencies, handover gaps, misalignment, pressure, or context-switching.
The Rings help you see these challenges from angles you’ve never used before.

Clear, Practical Next Steps

By viewing problems through multiple Rings, teams discover blind spots, strengths, and what’s truly causing friction.
Each round ends with a simple, meaningful action the team agrees to take.

EARTH - Reality

See things as they are.

Earth is the discipline of grounding. It represents stability, honesty, and contact with what’s real ,not hopes, assumptions or stories.

Strengths:

Clarity on what’s actually happening
Grounded, steady decisions
Realistic expectations

Common Traps:

Becoming rigid
Sticking to the plan even when conditions change
Confusing caution with safety

How Earth shows up in teams:

Clear definition of work
Realistic commitments
Calm voices during uncertainty

WATER - Flow

Adapt with purpose.

Water is the discipline of movement. It represents adaptability, ease, and shaping work around constraints rather than resisting them.

Strengths:

Graceful handling of change
Reduced friction
Strong collaboration

Common Traps:

Becoming too flexible
Saying yes to everything
Losing boundaries

How Water shows up in teams:

Smooth handovers
Reduced switching
A rhythm that feels natural

Fire - Action

Cut through quickly.

Fire is decisive action. It represents speed, courage, and the willingness to remove blockers rather than tolerate them

Strengths:

Fast resolution of issues
High energy
Bold problem-solving

Common Traps:

Reactivity
Overstepping roles
Burning out the team

How Earth shows up in teams:

Clear ownership
Quick decision-making
Momentum during delivery

WIND - Perspective

See the bigger picture.

Wind is the discipline of seeing beyond the immediate.
It represents curiosity, systems thinking, and awareness of forces outside the team’s bubble.

Strengths:

Better decisions through context
Reduced surprises
Stronger cross-team alignment

Common Traps:

- Overthinking
- Analysis paralysis
- Getting lost in possibilities

How Water shows up in teams:

Better risk anticipation
Healthy dependency management
Awareness of the organisation’s wider goals

VOID - Insight

Cut through quickly.

Find clarity in stillness.

Void is the discipline of emptying.
It represents simplicity, space, and the ability to remove noise until the right next step becomes obvious.

Strengths:

Calm clarity
Deep reflection
High-quality decisions

Common Traps:

Over-withdrawing
Avoiding conflict
Using “reflection” as a way to delay

How Earth shows up in teams:

Thoughtful retros
Reduced ego
Decisions made from understanding, not urgency

Experience the Workshop

Book a call to discuss requirements

Watermark

Bringing the Rings Together

Real power comes from seeing how the Rings interact.
Every team has a dominant ring, a weak ring, and a missing ring — patterns that shape how they communicate, collaborate, and deliver.

Understanding these patterns is the first step to improvement.