First in a series “Resonant Maneuvers” on Cultivating Fluid Power
A small team can act like fluid, moving with cohesion, as its force concentrates and dissipates to manifest power: the (value-neutral) capability to create transformation in the world. What approaches facilitate shaping this fluid even as it responds to the landscape of its own accord?
A tradition that has demonstrated wisdom in this matter is American Maneuver Warfare. Here, we explore the art of maneuver that appears when we set aside warfare and place these maneuvers in paired resonance with Himalayan frameworks of interiority, creating a scaffolding for cultivating fluid power.
Below, they will be presented in summary form at-all-once, to convey a gestalt, and then with more elaboration.
The Five Resonant Maneuvers: Summary
Feeling-contact-participation: Fingerspitzengefühl resonating with Earth
(FING-uh-shpitt-zen-guh-FYOOL - literally “fingertip-feeling”)
(1) intuitive situational awareness that (2) arises from open awareness and (3) active participation.
Relational dispositions: Movement, Curiosity, Transparency
Regime-change-flow: Schwerpunkt resonating with Water
(SHVARE-poongkt - literally “heavy point”)
(1) energetic concentration that (2) provides sufficient activation energy to (3) change the situation into a new world.
Relational dispositions: Boldness, Vitality, Composure
Trust-context-cohesion: Einheit resonating with Fire
(EYEn-hite - literally “one-ness”)
(1) human trust and (2) sufficient overlapping orientation to (3) allow high-bandwidth dynamic communication.
Relational dispositions: Empathy, Warmth, Rapport
Actionable-waveguide-vision: Auftragstaktik resonating with Air
(OWF-trahks-TAK-tik - literally “mission tactics”)
(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.
Relational dispositions: Autonomy, Clarity, Improvisation
Tempo-fluidity-spaciousness: Behendigkeit resonating with Space
(buh-HEN-dikh-kite - literally “nimbleness”)
(1) ability to break out of currently effective patterns (2) before they lose traction with reality.
Relational dispositions: Skepticism, Play, Relaxation
There is also all that which is not of these aspects in whatever way (though there is the possibility of embracing such in a way that contributes to these aspects…):
Distortion-obscuration-friction: Reibung
(RYE-boong - literally “rubbing”)
The collective inverse of all the prior elements; the unpredictable drag of reality.
Relational dispositions: Closed-Mindedness, Blind Faith, Fixity
The Five Resonant Maneuvers: Introductory Guide
Feeling-contact-participation: Fingerspitzengefühl resonating with Earth
(1) intuitive situational awareness that (2) arises from open awareness and (3) active participation. Relational dispositions: Movement, Curiosity, Transparency
To be effective in most situations requires a large amount of tacit (not-yet-expressible) knowledge. It is rarely obvious what the appropriate next action should be. How is this knowledge acquired? From open awareness and active participation.
This is the ground of action, the “earth” on which action is founded.
Cultivating Feeling-contact-participation
Movement: Bodily Participation
A gnosis is found when the body becomes integrated with the evolution of circumstances.
Participate with full physical engagement, both in fullness of energy and sensitivity
Touch and feel things, don’t just look
Feel and respond as a sensed field of energetic pulls and pushes
Kill automation; do it manually once
Improv in the scene
Curiosity: Revealing Affordances
There are endless paths through the forest, not just on the ground but through the branches or in underground tunnels, as the animals know.
Perform every role
Play around, manipulating the circumstances to reveal all the ways it responds
Probe boundaries of “what’s allowed” or “what’s possible”
Add an absurd constraint; see hacks surface
Physically enact the Élan vital of objects
Transparency: Clarifying Actuality
The experience of actuality is always drifting from actuality itself. Responsivity requires a continual restoration of contact.
Sit quietly and watch what happens
Sketch in a field notebook
Create ethnographies
Ask questions that clarify the detail of the circumstances
Triangulate facts from three vantage points
Then clarity strikes, like a tsunami rising from the depths of the ocean, ready to create a permanent shift in the landscape…
Regime-change-flow: Schwerpunkt resonating with Water
(1) energetic concentration that (2) provides sufficient activation energy to (3) change the situation into a new world. Relational dispositions: Boldness, Vitality, Composure
In many situations, if action is not sufficiently forceful and concentrated, then the status quo returns. Consider a marriage proposal or accepting a job: a concentrated energy moment which divides the world into before and after.
Cultivating Regime-change-flow
Boldness: Activation Energy
Often, if change is of insufficient magnitude, the previous situation quickly re-asserts itself, as if one had poked a hole with a stick in wet sand.
Set a hard go/no‑go line
Blast through impediments to forward action
Start with a trifle
What would it mean to escalate?
Keep things moving with continuous micro-actions
Vitality: Energetic Concentration
To concentrate energy at a location requires dissipating energy elsewhere.
Kill all but one priority
Schedule a single irreversible act
Sprint through the time window
Triage ruthlessly: defer, cut scope, drop possibilities, abort what is in process
Aggressive next-action timing, crowding out anything that cannot co-exist
Composure: Force Readiness
Force cannot always be sustained indefinitely; the strongest muscle tires. When to rest and relax and gather the readiness for the next force committal?
Stage dry run once then commit
Rehearse retreat-and-reset once
Close open loops
Protect force generation potential
Quick shutdown
A fluid is individual particles connected by a cohesive but not rigid force…
Trust-context-cohesion: Einheit resonating with Fire
(1) human trust and (2) sufficient overlapping orientation to (3) allow high-bandwidth dynamic communication. Relational dispositions: Empathy, Warmth, Rapport
Complete alignment of orientation is to be a solid, a single battering ram, but unable to flow where needed. To be without alignment in orientation is a gas, lacking the penetrating force of the solid. The degree of overlapping orientation yields fluidity of varying viscosity. What viscosity is appropriate for the moment?
Cultivating Trust-context-cohesion
Empathy: Overlapping Orientation
Cultivate a multiplicity of related orientations, so that any particular one may be stepped-into in the right moment.
Rotate roles
Interview someone in anthropological detail about their role
Swap roles mid‑task to feel coordination
Long topical discussion of orientation
Socializing orientation documents
Warmth: Intimate Trust
Trust is a matter of endurance; there is no replacing sheer volume with intensity
Share Meals
Long walk-and-talks
Space for conversations
Working in varied pairs
Make others win
Rapport: High-Bandwidth Communication
High-bandwidth communication leads to the team responding as a cohesive fluid.
Quantity conversation
Tangled buddy pairs
Persistent group chat
Shared glossary
Normalize silence to allow thinking.
Let us lift this fluid into the atmosphere, into being a storm. Where does this water-pressure flow?
Actionable-waveguide-vision: Auftragstaktik resonating with Air
(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. Relational dispositions: Autonomy, Clarity, Improvisation
Transformation lies on a spectrum:
specific transformation: things have become exactly as envisioned
directional transformation: things are now more of the quality envisioned
revelatory transformation: a new world has arisen as a result of engagement, and we do not wish to go back.
The more specific the transformation, the more determinately executable a step-by-step path to success can be: specificity. The less specific the transformation, the more ways there are to accomplish it: adaptivity.
Cultivating Actionable-waveguide-vision
Autonomy: Edge Authority
The appropriate action is revealed in the here-and-now circumstance of those who act.
Guardrails for improvisation
Push authority nearest to those who are interacting in a situation that may yield fresh information
Pre‑authorize “deviate to succeed”
Disagree and commit…sensitivity to when disagreement merits slowing the tempo of action and when it doesn’t
“Silence = Consent” window
Clarity: Clear Vision
A vivid, possible future provides a path of conductivity for action.
Vivid day‑in‑the‑future scenarios
Possibility checks: can a path exist (back-casting)?
Write the narrative of the vision accomplished in advance
Distill vision into a slogan
Breathe a sensory vision of the future into the body
Improvisation: Pathless Path
Just as a block of marble can implicitly contain a sculpture, which must be revealed by the sculptor, a block of time can implicitly contain a future, which must be revealed by participatory action.
Minimum viable coordination points
Frame trade‑off space with three polarities
Clarify tempo expectations
Always‑on emergency communication channel
Define what not to do explicitly
The storm can blow wherever space allows.
Tempo-fluidity-spaciousness: Behendigkeit resonating with Space
(1) ability to break out of currently effective patterns (2) before they lose traction with reality. Relational dispositions: Skepticism, Play, Relaxation
All effective patterns have a momentum. Reality, though, never stays static. Hence, most successful patterns will eventually delaminate from reality, the close contact slowly separating as patterns keeps patterning in accord with their momentum and actuality goes in a different direction.
Cultivating Tempo-fluidity-spaciousness
Skepticism: Test Freshness
Freshness of comprehension is always fading.
Review actuality vs. what we are optimized for
Regular “stop doings”
Simulations of edge cases
Review circumstantial changes and how these impact fit
Change what is boring. Keep what is boring and notice how it changes anyway.
Play: Continuous Exploration
Actuality has endless possibilities.
Continuous micro‑experiments with hypotheses.
Maintain option portfolios
Pilot multiple variants in parallel.
Change one constraint and observe ripples
Vary tempo intentionally
Relaxation: Opening Space
Relaxing pattern momentum opens up freshness.
Keep spare capacity
Set aside time to just consider
Intentionally deferring action until last responsible moment
Cut dependencies
Clean up all messes
Distortion-obscuration-friction: Reibung
The collective inverse of all the prior elements; the unpredictable drag of reality.
Recognizing Distortion-obscuration-friction
Distortion-obscuration-friction of Feeling-contact-participation
Inability to see what is going on
Inability to participate in what’s happening
Lack of physical felt-sense interactive capacity
Distortion-obscuration-friction of Regime-change-flow
Inability to muster forces
Lack of clarity as to where to apply force
Apparently competing locales for concentration (dissipation is the companion of concentration, one must actively choose dissipation in some places in order to concentrate in others)
Distortion-obscuration-friction of Trust-context-cohesion
Lack of trust
Lack of context coherence
Misunderstood communication
Distortion-obscuration-friction of Actionable-waveguide-vision
The vision loses appeal
The vision is no longer possible to realize
Authority acquisitiveness (“Power Hunger”)
Distortion-obscuration-friction of Tempo-fluidity-spaciousness
Patterns that worked do so no longer
New challenges arise
Everything is on automatic
Engaging with Distortion-obscuration-friction
There are four basic approaches to Distortion-obscuration-friction:
Reduce
Eliminate: when friction is of great enough significance, a concentration of heavy force unto a regime change may be of benefit.
Eclipse: small frictions often arise and dissipate of their own accord, becoming irrelevant as the center of gravity moves elsewhere.
Embrace: “What would happen if we embraced this friction as welcome? What value might it bring?”
Next
In the subsequent parts of the series, we will explore more of each aspect of Cultivating Fluid Power.
The below will become links when published:
Resonant Maneuvers: Introduction
Resonant Maneuver: Feeling-contact-participation
Resonant Maneuver: Regime-change-flow
Resonant Maneuver: Trust-context-cohesion
Resonant Maneuver: Actionable-waveguide-vision
Resonant Maneuvers: Tempo-fluidity-spaciousness
Resonant Maneuvers: Application
Resonant Maneuvers: Backmatter
Delectable pith. Formatting let me really chew on it. Clear interdependencies between principles, left as an exercise for the reader to dig into. Asked myself "if this was dysfunctional, exactly how would the boringness feel" for each disposition, and each had a distinct discernible quality. Assuming the maneuvers to be extensions of the five pure lights?
Ari, this looks amazing! Looking forward to the unfolding of the series. I wonder if you are going to be offering this as a live program of some kind in the future?