Organizational Design & Institutions
3 mental models
How coordination structures evolve and function
Mental Models
Coordination Mechanisms & Human Cooperation
intermediate level
The evolutionary advantage of humans is that we cooperate flexibly in large numbers. If this is humanity's superpower, anything that boosts this ability to cooperate flexibly at scale is a civilizational upgrade. Understanding how power and culture create persistent coordination structures with distinct identities is crucial for building lasting institutions.
Bureaucracy vs. Agility Trade-offs
intermediate level
Scale allows specialization and creates social proof, enabling advantages to compound and potentially creating network effects. But scaled companies get destroyed by bureaucracy. The bigger you get, complexity increases exponentially and smart quirky people get weeded out. Balancing structure with responsiveness is organizationaldesign's central challenge.
High-Trust Culture & Autonomous Teams
intermediate level
Few rules, high trust, teams working together. Give autonomy and let them play their own game. No single leader as all participants were independent. Create high-trust teams and go far with autonomy. It takes bravery to limit complexity and maintain high-trust culture, but the results justify the difficulty.
About This Domain
How coordination structures evolve and function This collection of mental models provides frameworks for understanding and working within this domain effectively.