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30Principle · Group 4

Formlessness

Strategic agility

“If you show no fixed form, you offer your opponent no target and can adapt to any situation, like water.”

Every organization and every person has a form: structures, habits, places where they can be found.

Group 4: Deception and IndirectionT2 Eastern Strategy
Go to the in-depth section ↓
A rigid frame of teal lines stands in the middle; a mist-blue stroke hits it, and it breaks. Afterward, in its place, lies a surface of golden dots that scatters at the next hit, gathers again in several places and finally fills round, angular and narrow frames.
In short

If you show no fixed form, you offer your opponent no target and can adapt to any situation, like water.

What it’s about: Every organization and every person has a form: structures, habits, places where they can be found. Form gives stability, but it makes you predictable. An opponent can study it, find its weak spot and strike there. If you have no fixed location, no single head and no rigid pattern, you offer no target.

In depth

The principle in detail

Three steps through the principle: grasp it, place it, put it to work. Open each topic on its own.

The core messageCore statement and 3 clarifications
In essence

If you do not depend on a single place, head or pattern, you are hard to read and cannot be hit with a single blow.

It does not say
That structure is bad. What it means is freedom of shape with clarity at the core.
It does not say
That formless entities can do everything. They struggle to negotiate, assign responsibility and lock in their gains.
It also says
Over time, new centers emerge in formless systems, and with them new points of attack.
The explanationThe principle works externally and internally.

The principle works externally and internally.

Externally, the opponent does not know where to attack, and when it does attack, it hits only part of you. Internally, it creates adaptability.

  • Formlessness does not mean arbitrariness.
  • Water remains water even when it changes its shape.
  • If you give up your core, you are not formless but dissolved.
The question

What is your core, the part that stays, and which form could you let go of?

The signs3 signs when you heed it · 2 when you overlook it
When you heed it
  • Your team keeps working when you are out.
  • Knowledge and decisions lie with several people.
  • Everyone can say what holds at the core, even when processes change.
When you overlook it
  • Everything runs through you, or through one supplier, one location, one system; if that point fails, everything stops.
  • Or the team is so loose that nobody decides anymore and nobody signs.
The backgroundTradition T2 Eastern Strategy
  1. 5th c. BC
    OriginSun Tzu

    Chapter 6

  2. 2006
    SupplementedOri Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom

    The Starfish and the Spider

  3. 2017
    SupplementedZeynep Tufekci

    Twitter and Tear Gas

  4. Tradition T2
    TraditionEastern Strategy

    Sun Tzu, Kautilya, the Thirty-Six Stratagems, the Tao Te Ching, Miyamoto Musashi, François Jullien

    See the tradition on the Origin page
Read more: the full background

From the sixth chapter of “The Art of War,” which is attributed to Sun Tzu (China, around the 5th century BC), with the image of water that the Tao Te Ching, attributed to Laozi, also uses. Supplemented by Bruce Lee, by “The Starfish and the Spider” by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom (2006) and by Zeynep Tufekci’s objections in “Twitter and Tear Gas” (2017).

The research3 sources: 2 case studies, 1 classic · 2006–2017 · with limitations of the research
3 sources2006–2017 period2 case studies1 classic
Strength of evidence
  1. weak
  2. moderate
  3. strong

One classic and two collections of cases; that formless organizations survive attacks better has not been measured, and one of the sources mainly shows the limit.

  1. 5th c. BCtrans. 1910
    Classic
    Sun Tzu

    Chapter 6: the highest achievement is to conceal your own dispositions; water retains no constant shape, and in war there are no constant conditions.

  2. 2006
    Case study
    Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom

    “The Starfish and the Spider”: decentralized organizations are hard to destroy; examples range from file-sharing networks on the internet to Alcoholics Anonymous.

  3. 2017
    Case study
    Zeynep Tufekci

    “Twitter and Tear Gas”: networked protest movements, including those of the Arab Spring, Occupy and Gezi Park, grow quickly and find it hard to negotiate goals and to make their gains last.

Where the research reaches its limits
  • Formlessness protects you against an opponent who is looking for a center.
  • It does little against an opponent who changes the rules for everyone; in Hong Kong, the 2020 national security law showed this limit.
  • Over time, new centers emerge in formless systems, and with them new points of attack.
  • At the key passage, Lionel Giles speaks of concealing your dispositions, not of formlessness; the reading “no form” follows other translations.
Read more: what research shows

The principle comes from the sixth chapter of “The Art of War,” which is attributed to Sun Tzu. There, the highest level of disposing your forces is to show no recognizable form; Lionel Giles renders the passage as “the highest pitch you can attain is to conceal them.” Just as water has no constant shape, there are no constant conditions in war. Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom describe decentralized organizations with the image of the starfish: cut off an arm and it grows back, while a spider without a head dies. Zeynep Tufekci shows the limit in networked protest movements, including Occupy Wall Street and the protests in Istanbul’s Gezi Park. They grow quickly but often fail to negotiate goals and to make their gains last. Both books work with cases, not with measurements.

The related principles22 Mission Command · 29 Emptiness and Fullness · 89 Antifragility · 92 The Soft Overcomes the Hard
Emptiness and FullnessMission Command

To go deeper, see 29 Emptiness and Fullness (from the same chapter: if you are formless, you flow to where the opponent is empty) and 22 Mission Command (distributed command does not depend on a single head)

Antifragility

89 Antifragility goes one step further: formless systems can grow from blows

The Soft Overcomes the Hard

92 The Soft Overcomes the Hard shares the image of water

Read more: the full text

To go deeper, see 29 Emptiness and Fullness (from the same chapter: if you are formless, you flow to where the opponent is empty) and 22 Mission Command (distributed command does not depend on a single head). 89 Antifragility goes one step further: formless systems can grow from blows. 92 The Soft Overcomes the Hard shares the image of water.

The action steps5 action steps: Find the points where everything depends on one person, one place or one supplier.

  1. Find the points where everything depends on one person, one place or one supplier.

  2. Share knowledge and responsibility so that at least two people can handle every important task.

  3. Put the core into words: three or four sentences that hold no matter how processes change.

  4. Decide who may make binding decisions and sign, even when the work is shared.

  5. After every disruption, check where new centers have formed and whether you want them.

The reflection questions3 questions: What comes to a standstill if you are out for three weeks?
  1. What comes to a standstill if you are out for three weeks?
  2. Which sentences describe the core of your team, no matter how processes change?
  3. Who in your team may make binding decisions when the work is shared?

Take your time with one question. Write down your answer – or talk it over with someone you trust.

To finish
The picture to rememberThe animation once more, with an explanation
  1. A rigid frame of teal lines stands in the middle
  2. A mist-blue stroke hits it, and it breaks
  3. Afterward, in its place, lies a surface of golden dots that scatters at the next hit, gathers again in several places and finally fills round, angular and narrow frames
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In context

Group 4: Deception and Indirection

Guiding question: How do you reach your goal without charging head-on?

Stage 3 of 5: Choose the path

Where the 92 principles come from: eight traditions of strategy, from classical war theory to dealing with uncertainty.

More about the origin

Background: WEGVISOR’s own selection from the strategy literature · More about the origin

Examples

The principle in practice

From the different spheres of society.

Business

Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin and Formlessness

In January 2009, a network for digital money goes live that has no headquarters, no boss and no company address. Because Bitcoin has no fixed form, no single authority can shut it down, not even when its inventor disappears.

Formlessness
Government

The 2019 Hong Kong Protests and Formlessness

In 2019, hundreds of thousands of people in Hong Kong protest against an extradition bill. They follow a motto of the actor Bruce Lee, “Be water”: no leaders, no fixed location; appear, disperse, regroup somewhere else.

Formlessness
Faith

Yohanan ben Zakkai, Yavne and Formlessness

In AD 70, the Romans destroy the Temple in Jerusalem, the center of the Jewish faith. According to tradition, Yohanan ben Zakkai ensures that Judaism does not perish with it: he no longer ties it to a place but to the Torah, to study and to prayer.

Formlessness
Culture & Sports

Movie: Enter the Dragon

In “Enter the Dragon” (1973), Bruce Lee fights without a rigid form. He adapts to every opponent, wins some fights without fighting and in the end defeats an enemy who hides behind reflections.

Formlessness
FAQ

Questions about Formlessness

What does the principle of Formlessness say?

You show your opponent no fixed form that it can study and attack. Like water, you adapt to the situation and regroup after every blow without giving up your core.

Where does the principle come from?

From the sixth chapter of “The Art of War,” which is attributed to Sun Tzu. There Sun Tzu names showing no recognizable form as the highest level of disposing your forces, and he compares the army to water.

What are some examples?

Bitcoin runs without a central authority and is therefore almost impossible to shut down. In 2019, the protesters in Hong Kong organized without leaders, and after the destruction of the Temple, according to tradition, Yohanan ben Zakkai tied Judaism to the Torah instead of to a place.

How well is Formlessness supported by research?

Evidence: weak – one classic and two collections of cases; that formless organizations survive attacks better has not been measured, and one of the sources mainly shows the limit.

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