As I sit in Robert Fritz’s seminar on Structural Consulting, I marvel at Robert’s calm yet energetic way of introducing the principles he described in The Path of Least Resistance. I sit amongst an eclectic range of college students, counseling professionals and business people. Each of the exercises introduces me to a different life long learner interested in applying structural thinking techniques to their skills for creating and innovating.

What got me to the seminar was the reading of The Path of Least Resistance. Fritz provided further insights at a personal level that was comparable to what Russ Ackoff was describing at a corporate level. Fritz builds his work on three fundamental insights:

“You are like a river. You go through life taking the path of least resistance. We all do – all humans and all of nature. It is important to know that. You may try to change the direction of your own flow in certain areas of your life – your eating habits, the way you work, the way you relate to others, the way you treat yourself, the attitudes you have about life – and you may even succeed for a time. But eventually you find that you return to your original behavior and attitudes – the path of least resistance. This is because your life is determined insofar as it is a law of nature for you to take the path of least resistance.

“The second insight is just as fundamental: The underlying structure determines the path of least resistance. Just as the terrain around Boston determined the path of least resistance for the cows to follow, and just as a riverbed determines the path of the water flowing through it, so the structures in your life determine your path of least resistance. Whether you are aware of these structures or not, they are there. The structure of the river remains the same whether there is water flowing through it or not.

“You may barely notice the underlying structures in your life, and how powerfully and naturally they determine the way you live.

“Many continue to live the way they do, feeling powerless and hopeless. They have attempted to make major changes in their relationships, their careers, their family, their health, and the quality of their lives, only to find themselves, a short time later, back in the same old familiar situation, following their old patterns. They may have indeed made some superficial changes in their lives, but somehow nothing seems really to have changed. They know that there is something more in life, but they don’t know how to get to it.

“If a riverbed remains unchanged, the water will continue to flow along the path it always has, since that is the most natural route for it to take.

“The third insight is this:

“We can change fundamental underlying structures of our lives. Just as engineers can change the path of a river by changing the structure of the terrain, so that the river flows where they want it to go, you can change the very basic orientation of your life, so that you can create the life that you want.

“Furthermore, once a new basic structure is in place, the overall thrust of your life – like the power of the river’s current surges to form the results that you want. And the direct path to those results becomes the path of least resistance. In fact, with an appropriate change in the underlying structure of your life, the path of least resistance cannot lead anywhere but in the direction you really want to go.”

On Fritz’s website, there is a short video (click on Tension seeks Resolution) that shows how the tension of appropriate structures seek to resolve themselves:

As I applied this to my own life, I thought that the hardest part would be coming up with the vision and clarity about what I want. What I found through application is the hardest step is overcoming all of the many ways that we’ve learned to deny Current Reality. A key part of extreme productivity consulting and software design is to help our clients ruthlessly see their current business reality.

A wealth of resources can be found at Robert’s website and in his newsletters.

Books by Robert Fritz