Notes on Organizations
Observations, ideas, and practical tools for understanding and improving organizations.
Field Guide
Concepts, laws, and mental models that sharpen organizational understanding.
Latest Writing
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Every Organization Whispers
Read →: Every Organization WhispersThe org chart is not the only place status gets assigned 4 min read In 2008, Paul Graham published a short essay called “Cities and Ambition.” His claim: every city whispers something. Not through billboards, but through the ambient culture of the place, the conversations overheard at dinner, the questions strangers ask when they meet…
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Every Organization Has an Otter
Read →: Every Organization Has an OtterWhy organizations rarely know who they’re standing on 4 min read In the early 1960s, ecologist Robert Paine picked a short stretch of rocky shoreline on the Washington coast, at a place called Mukkaw Bay, and started removing every ochre sea star he could find from it. Not once. Every couple of weeks, by hand,…
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The Forest Trades. The Hive Votes.
Read →: The Forest Trades. The Hive Votes.The popular story says forests share out of generosity and hives decide by instinct. The research says something more interesting: one runs on enforced trade, the other on honest consensus.
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