Structural Tension

What inspired yesterday's post?

It's great when your LinkedIn post gets some interaction. People not just saying "attaboy" but adding and deepening the dialogue. Thanks to those who took time and did.

Here's some background. Perhaps explaining why it's difficult for consultants to take on the dual role, delivering and selling.

I've taken some time off to reflect on my work as a solo practitioner over the last 30 years. Input for what I choose to do more of over the next few years.

Part of my reflection process revisited frameworks I found useful in the early days, when I had interests in organisational culture change and team performance.

Back then, at the beginning, my guidance came from people like Peter Senge and his crew — those who contributed to The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook.

One of these was Robert Fritz.

Robert taught me about structural tension. The psychological and motivational drive created by the gap between your desired outcome and current reality.

You can read more about it in his short book The Path of Least Resistance.

The way he explains it goes something like this.

Imagine you're standing in a room with a wall in front of you and one behind you. The wall in front is your desired outcome. The one behind is your current reality.

You have two bungee cords attached to your waist, like giant rubber bands. These are attached to the walls, one behind and one in front, without any slack.

Standing in the middle things are fine; move either way and you upset the system's equilibrium. As you move toward your desired outcome the cord in front becomes relaxed, the cord behind stretches. Move too far and you get snapped back into your current reality.

Ouch!

What you see here is an example of desire and willpower trying to beat underlying system dynamics. It's like trying to go against gravity.

This is why change is hard, or fails, if you don't set things up right.

What we've got is an oscillating structure with a system working to find equilibrium.

Now, looking back at my post about consultants playing a dual role, delivering and selling. Can you see the tension‑resolution system at work?

The problem isn't that consultants can't, or won't, sell. It's that the system they are stuck in works against them.

This is why knowing what to do often doesn't mean people do what they know. It's why training alone isn't enough. It's why you need to think about business development capacity as an ecosystem, not an engine.

And so the obvious question to ask is: "How do you do that?"