Notes on Organizations

Observations, ideas, and practical tools for understanding and improving organizations.

Title River

Seeing organizations more clearly

Organizations are living systems with recurring patterns. Those patterns have been studied across many disciplines. Rather than promoting a single methodology, OrgRiver collects, connects, and interprets enduring ideas that help people see organizations more clearly and make better decisions.

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Field Notes

Observations and essays exploring how organizations work—and why.

Field Guide

Concepts, laws, and mental models that sharpen organizational understanding.

Toolkit

Practical frameworks and resources for improving organizations.

Latest Writing

  • Bob Dylan Teaches Change Management

    Bob Dylan Teaches Change Management

    When Bob Dylan went electric at Newport in 1965, the crowd booed. What they were reacting to wasn’t the quality of the music. It was a lesson in why good changes provoke resistance.

  • Too Few Bridges

    Employee surveys keep finding the same problem, and reorgs keep failing to fix it. Maybe the walls aren’t a mistake. Maybe they’re what expertise looks like from the outside.

  • What Does Your Org Whisper?

    What Does Your Org Whisper?

    In 2008, Paul Graham argued every city whispers an ambient message about what earns respect. The same mechanism runs inside organizations, and most leaders don’t know what theirs is saying.

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