Pace Layers for Organization
Pace Layers help visualize, distinguish, and discuss different kinds of work and teams within an organization. Here, I bring together a bunch of great thinking into a single construct. Enjoy!
Structure
Structure is the deepest variable in organizational life. Most everything else here points back to it.
50 posts
Software for Scaled Organizing
TL;DR: PowerPoint is a terrible tool for organization design, and we need a trusted alternative designed to match our values. And, sorry, leader-owned maps of reporting lines aren't the answer.
The Trouble With Hierarchy
Hierarchy lets leaders learn more; it pushes the org to learn about itself, not about customers; it creates busywork. A network of teams is the answer.
John Collison on Stripe's Org Design
Three takeaways: the power of small, coherent teams; speed as a quality of life metric; focusing on the value of the marginal team.
Less Strategy, More Structure
Explaining why big, transformative top-down projects never seem to work, and two simple recommendations to fix the glitch: less strategy; more structure.
Five Org Design Things N° 4
Tesla and vertical integration; hotels and the theory of the firm; Shipt dystopia; Range's newest raise; digital service.
Aragon Court & Decentralizing Justice
Decentralized justice systems... might be the future of corporate governance?
Rethinking Dynamism
The truth about most organizations, especially the big ones, is that they're structurally quite fast-moving and dynamic.
Competitive Intensity, Business Models, and Distributed Authority
The correct answer to a question about the level of distributed authority doesn't just respond to the will of the people, or to some theoretical norm – it has to be in conversation with the market dynamics of the industry and the company's position in that market.
Assessing Performance in Responsive Orgs
When we surveyed a bunch of organizations, we found that effectiveness was correlated with leadership helping create networks within the org.
The Trouble With Innovation
Several years and one company ago, I found myself in a mid-project meeting with a group of clients from a large hospitality company. We were sat in an innovation room that could have been plucked directly from the d.School – every single furnishing came from their catalog. Sitting at
August's Starter Governance Kernel
Governance is recorded as either Roles or Policies. All of it is changeable with data on a cycle-by-cycle cadence, at open, facilitated Governance Meetings. Policies apply to teams that create them, and to any sub-teams. Everything else is up to your best judgement.