I recently came across the concept of Tensegrity. I alluded to this in my last post on Why Strategy Deployment when I referred to elasticity. In this post, I want to expand on that and describe why I think tensegrity might be relevant. I believe it provides an interesting way in which we can think about Strategy Deployment.
What is tensegrity?
The word tensegrity is a portmanteau of “tensional integrity”. A simple definition is that it is:
a way of designing structures that rely on tension, rather than compression for their integrity.
https://tensegrityworld.com/what-is-tensegrity/
This is an excellent video which visually explains the concept:
Why is tensegrity relevant?
Toward the end of the above video, the human body is given as an example of tensegrity. The fascia and muscle provide the tension and integrity around the skeleton which is in compression.
Some long-time readers of this blog might know that I am a regular runner. As a result, I have written the occasional post which is related to running. Therefore, I found this extremely interesting when I first came across the concept in the book “The Lost Art of Running” by Shane Benzie. Shane builds on the idea by suggesting that to run efficiently, we should take advantage of this tensegrity.
It was the fact of being a tensegrity system that helped us be more efficient. It allowed our bodies to be stretchy and even bouncy, a theory which is quite different from the image of the skeleton supporting us and moving by way of a mechanical lever system, which is the biomechanics view.
The Lost Art of Running by Shane Bezie
Similarly, many people treat organisations as mechanical structures with levers to be pushed and pulled. What if we treat organisations more as elastic systems, where we try to stretch and bounce dynamically, rather than push and pull harder?
How does tensegrity relate to Strategy Deployment?
It’s this idea of focusing on the dynamics rather than the structure that struck me about tensegrity. Consequently, it seemed to be relevant as a metaphor for Strategy Deployment. While I have previously written about the dynamics of strategy deployment and Catchball, tensegrity provides another way of thinking about this. Typically we focus on hierarchies which create integrity through structure and “compression”. Instead, we should grow informal networks which create integrity through elasticity and “tension”.
Thus, tensegrity helps explain how Strategy Deployment and Catchball can create resilience. Having tensional integrity in this way enables organisations to recover more quickly from the unknown and unexpected. The compression roles we typically see as hierarchy are still there, but they are no longer creating rigid structures and fragile organisations. Instead, the tension of the networks can stretch, absorb the change and bounce back again.