Good Design is Good Will
Paul Rand, org designer. I also especially like how the essay's title hints at *willfulness* and the last line points at an economic outcome. #nice
Clay Parker Jones
I lead Organizational Design at Airbnb. Previously: August, Undercurrent.
Nestlé Is Eating Itself (On Purpose)
Nestlé is exiting ice cream, spinning out water, and cutting 16,000 roles...and it can do all of that cleanly because of a global ERP project that started in 2000 and took more than a decade to roll out. Technology!
Five OD Things N° 13
Company as code; a city is not a computer; AI as cybernetic teammate; a field experiment rewires the org chart; when it starts feeling like a video game
Company as Code
Like a lot of things I write about, this is both a new and wild idea and something that's been around for a long time but hasn't really caught on. It'd be cooler if it did.
Survey on Hidden Patterns
Please participate in my survey on patterns and performance in organizations, at survey.hd-pt.com. It takes 5 minutes!
Design Feeling
Naoto Fukasawa designs objects that disappear into use. Most org design disappears into frameworks. What if we took feeling as seriously as thinking?
When It Starts Feeling Like a Video Game
The system goes on-line August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.
The New Five Forces
Porter's Five Forces are worth critiquing but we've got to adopt structures that actually allow organizations to adapt to big shocks.
A City Is Not a Computer: Other Urban Intelligences
Don't treat human systems (exclusively) as engineering problems.
INSEAD: AI Changes the Org Chart
It is an article of faith among technologists that artificial intelligence will make workers more productive. A new field experiment suggests it may do something more interesting: make them more social.
The Decision Bottleneck
More flattening, more information, not a ton of good practice around decision-making.
Structure Is Not Organization
Going back to the archives with the original attempt to join hard and soft elements of organization design. Also, I missed a day. Oops!