Resonant Maneuvers as Water: An Aspect of Cultivating Collective Power as the Mandala

Using concentration and dispersion to create opportune waves of activation energy

This article presumes familiarity with the foundation of the series, Resonant Maneuvers: Introduction

A Brief Re-Orientation to Resonant Maneuvers

We are exploring here five aspects of fluid power in small teams, considering the matter by placing the tradition of American Maneuver Warfare in resonance with Himalayan frameworks of interiority.

The five elements:

Feeling-contact-participation (Fingerspitzengefühl): (1) intuitive situational awareness that (2) arises from open awareness and (3) active participation.

Regime-change-flow (Schwerpunkt): (1) energetic concentration that (2) provides sufficient activation energy to (3) change the situation into a new world.

Trust-context-cohesion (Einheit): (1) human trust and (2) sufficient overlapping orientation to (3) allow high-bandwidth dynamic communication.

Actionable-waveguide-vision (Auftragstaktik): (1) a clear vision of the future to live into (2) constrained only by the possibility of a path there (3) held individually and collectively.

Tempo-fluidity-spaciousness (Behendigkeit) (1) ability to break out of currently effective patterns (2) before they lose traction with reality.

There is also all that which is not of these aspects in whatever way...

Distortion-obscuration-friction (Reibung): The collective inverse of all the prior elements: the unpredictable drag of reality.

This article centers on Regime-change-flow (Schwerpunkt), the aspect that most directly concerns the wielding of power itself: the concentration and dispersion of energy, attention, and resources to create successive opportune waves of activation energy that permanently shift the landscape.

The Nature of Water

Consider the three classic states of matter, solid, fluid, and gas, at the everyday human-scale as symbols of concentration and dispersion. Solid matter, such as rock, suggest a concentration of matter in a fixed form, immense power but limited range of applicability. A gas, such as air, is a homogenous dispersion that lightly touches everything, but is of limited force. A fluid, such as water in liquid form, has powers of concentration and dispersion: water can flow everywhere, and when it concentrates, such as in a tsunami, it can permanently alter the landscape.

The topic here is maneuvering in the mess of everyday reality to accomplish a future that would not happen otherwise. The chaotic landscape we face is comprised of innumerable overlapping fields of care, without binding coherences except in that they all participate in the same actuality, and each with their own saliences. For example, we may find fields of care such as the well-being of individuals, the financial health of an organization, its reputation, its impact on the world. Treating these as a homogeneous field can inhibit the necessary activation energy for change from occurring. To work effectively within these fields of care requires concentration and dispersion of energy, attention, and resources, creating a tsunami first here, and then there, permanently reshaping the shore. Ultimately, personal aesthetics create visions of the future which guides the pattern of concentration and dispersion, aesthetics that are continually evolving responsively.

The Heavy Point

Schwerpunkt (SHVARE-poongkt) literally translates as “heavy point” or “center of gravity.” In maneuver warfare, it refers to the point of main effort, where forces concentrate to achieve decisive effect. It is not only a location of action but sufficient force to cause irreversible transformation.

In many situations, if action is not sufficiently forceful and concentrated, the status quo returns. Consider a marriage proposal or accepting a job offer: these are moments of activation-energy which divide the world into before and after. In contrast, poke a hole in wet sand with a stick and the sand flows back. When a tsunami destroys the land mass that separates the ocean from a low region of land a new inland ocean is formed. The force is overwhelming and concentrated in a way that creates permanent regime change (regime in the sense of: the governing structures of the context).

Concentration

To concentrate energy at a location requires dispersing energy elsewhere. Consider:

1. Temporal concentration: compressing effort into a decisive window rather than spreading it across indefinite time.

2. Attentional concentration: directing the full awareness and commitment toward a single objective.

3. Resource concentration: within a single objective, focusing resources on a single point of leverage rather than distributing them across a range of options.

Dispersion

Dispersion is the complement of concentration. There are two axes of dispersion, synchronic (at a given moment) and diachronic (across time). In synchronic dispersion, to concentrate in one way implies dispersing elsewhere as energy, attention, and resources move towards the heavy point of concentration. In diachronic dispersion, there is a moment of no concentration, as:

1. Force generation potential is protected: the team recovers, regroups, resupplies, and the capacity for the next concentration is preserved and enhanced.

2. New information is gathered and vision evolves into re-vision: the broadly dispersed state contributes to sensing more of the environment. Fingerspitzengefühl requires contact with actuality; concentration narrows that contact to tunnel vision. The landscape has changed. The next concentration point cannot be determined until the effects of the previous concentration have revealed themselves.

Intensity of Coupling

Coupling refers to the degree of coordination and mutual constraint between elements of a system.

Water’s concentration and dispersion can also be looked at as, respectively, moments of tight coupling and loose coupling. When forces concentrate for a Schwerpunkt, they become tightly coupled: each element’s actions are closely coordinated with others, communication bandwidth is high, and the whole moves as one. When forces disperse, coupling loosens: elements operate with greater independence, communication becomes intermittent, and the whole becomes a constellation rather than a mass.

Tight coupling creates maximum force but reduces adaptability; loose coupling creates maximum adaptability but disperses force.

Wave Rhythm

The wave rhythm of action refers to the cadence of successive concentrations and dispersions across time.

A single concentration-dispersion cycle creates a single wave. A series of such cycles creates a rhythm. When this rhythm is well-tuned, each wave builds on the effects of the previous waves, creating cumulative transformation far beyond what any single wave could achieve.

The rhythm is disrupted by:

1. Failure to disperse: trying to maintain concentration indefinitely leads to an exhaustion of resources and a delaminating of the concentration with the evolving actuality.

2. Failure to re-concentrate: remaining in permanent dispersion, never gathering force for the next decisive action.

3. Premature action: concentration before the next action is revealed as it emerges in time.

4. Dilatory action: concentration after the circumstances have passed beyond the most fruitful moment to effect change.

Time and Fingerspitzengefühl and reveals the effects of action, sometimes progressively. Time also reveals the evolution of affordances for further action, which may crest and then diminish. The ancient Greek word for critical timing is Kairos: it is the conversation between Fingerspitzengefühl and Schwerpunkt on the topic offered by Auftragstaktik.

In Relation to Other Maneuver Aspects

Fingerspitzengefühl: Sensing Where to Concentrate

Fingerspitzengefühl, Feeling-contact-participation, reveals where the Schwerpunkt should be placed. The landscape is not uniform; some points are load-bearing, others are decorative. Fingerspitzengefühl senses the grain of actuality and identifies where concentrated force will have the most transformative effect.

Without Fingerspitzengefühl, concentration becomes un-apt, applied to other than the most fruitful point.

Einheit: The Medium of Concentration

Einheit, Trust-context-cohesion, provides the medium through which force can concentrate. Stimmigkeit (congruent shared meaning) is what allows disparate individuals to coalesce their energies into a unified Schwerpunkt.

Without Einheit, the tight coupling of concentration cannot be achieved.

Auftragstaktik: The Direction of Force

Auftragstaktik, Actionable-waveguide-vision, provides the purpose that guides where successive waves should crash. The vision and re-vision of transformation indicates the series of successive Schwerpunkt that cumulatively achieve the future.

Without Auftragstaktik, concentration does not yield a wave rhythm that creates a cumulative effect.

Behendigkeit: The Capacity to Shift

Behendigkeit, Tempo-fluidity-spaciousness, enables the shift from one Schwerpunkt to the next. As circumstances evolve, Behendigkeit allows the release of the current pattern and the formation of a new one.

Without Behendigkeit, concentration is no longer aimed at the most opportune point.

Cultivating Regime-Change-Flow

Boldness: Activation Energy

If change is of insufficient magnitude, the previous situation may reassert itself.

- Set hard go/no-go lines that commit to decisive action once conditions are met

- Brute-force through impediments to forward action rather than working around them

- Ask: what would it mean to escalate?

Vitality: Energetic Concentration

To concentrate energy at a location requires synchronic dispersion elsewhere.

- Kill all but one priority

- Engage in single irreversible acts that force commitment

- Triage by deferring, cutting scope, drop possibilities, aborting what is not contributing

Diachronic Dispersion: Force Readiness

- Sharpen tools, both material and organizational

- Close open loops

- Replenish reserves of resources, health, clarity

Perceiving the Rhythm

Effective Schwerpunkt has:

1. Decisive effect: the landscape is permanently altered

2. Clean dispersion: when concentration ends, energy recovers rather than lingers, exhausted

3. Building momentum: each successive wave crests higher than the last

The play of oscillating between concentration and dispersion, guided by Fingerspitzengefühl toward actuality and by Auftragstaktik toward purpose, held together by Einheit and refreshed by Behendigkeit, yields the opportune wave rhythm that cumulatively reshapes the world.