This chapter applies the concepts of ethos and thought to the design of organizations. How you structure a team, a company, or an institution shapes what kind of work it can do, what kind of people it attracts, and what kind of culture it produces. Structure is not neutral. It is strategy made visible.
Organizations as Designed Systems
Organizations are not natural objects. They are human inventions—designed artifacts that can be redesigned. The hierarchy, the meetings, the job titles, the reward systems—all of these are choices, often inherited without examination.
Every organizational structure:
- Channels attention. Who talks to whom? What information flows where? The structure determines what people know.
- Distributes power. Who decides? Who is consulted? Who is informed? The structure is a map of authority.
- Shapes incentives. What gets rewarded? What gets ignored? The structure tells people what matters.
- Enables and constrains. Some things are easy within a structure, others nearly impossible.
Understanding structure as design is liberating. If it was designed, it can be redesigned.
Classic Organizational Forms
Several canonical forms dominate organizational design:
Hierarchy (bureaucracy). Clear chain of command. Roles are specialized. Decisions flow up, instructions flow down. Strengths: clarity, accountability, scalability. Weaknesses: slow adaptation, information bottlenecks, disempowered frontlines.
Flat/network organizations. Minimal hierarchy. Authority is distributed. Teams self-organize around tasks. Strengths: speed, innovation, autonomy. Weaknesses: unclear accountability, coordination costs, power struggles.
Matrix organizations. Dual reporting—functional and project managers. Attempts to combine specialization with cross-functional work. Strengths: flexibility, resource sharing. Weaknesses: role confusion, conflict, meeting overload.
Holacracy and self-management. Formal systems that distribute authority through explicit rules and circles. Strengths: adaptive, transparent governance. Weaknesses: steep learning curve, rule complexity.
Each form embodies a philosophy. Hierarchy assumes expertise should command. Flat assumes everyone should contribute equally. Matrix assumes multiple perspectives must integrate. Holacracy assumes explicit process beats implicit politics.
Ethos and Structure
An organization's ethos is not just its stated values. It is the lived experience of working there—what actually happens, not what posters proclaim.
Structure shapes ethos:
- Tall hierarchies create deference cultures. Speaking up is risky. Information is currency.
- Flat structures create debate cultures. Everyone has a voice, but closure is difficult.
- Matrix structures create negotiation cultures. Influence matters more than authority.
- Remote-first structures create documentation cultures. What is not written does not exist.
When designing structure, ask: what ethos does this create? Is that the ethos we want?
Thought and Structure
The kind of thinking an organization can do depends on its structure.
- Innovation requires slack, experimentation, tolerance for failure. Highly controlled structures suppress it.
- Execution requires focus, accountability, clear handoffs. Loose structures fumble it.
- Learning requires feedback loops, retrospectives, psychological safety. Punitive structures prevent it.
- Strategic thinking requires long-term orientation, protected time, access to diverse information. Short-term pressure structures crowd it out.
If your structure cannot support the thinking you need, no amount of exhortation will fix it. Change the structure.
Designing for Your Context
There is no universally best structure. The right structure depends on:
- Environment. Stable environments favor efficiency structures. Turbulent environments favor adaptive structures.
- Task. Routine tasks favor standardization. Creative tasks favor autonomy.
- Scale. Small teams can be informal. Large organizations need more explicit coordination.
- Culture. Structures must fit the cultural expectations of their people. Imposing alien structures creates friction.
Practice: Environment scan. Before choosing a structure, analyze your environment. How fast is it changing? How predictable is it? Match structure to environment.
Practice: Task inventory. What work does the organization actually do? Categorize by routine vs. creative, individual vs. collaborative. Design structures that fit the work.
Common Design Moves
When redesigning organizations, certain moves recur:
Create cross-functional teams. Break silos by putting diverse functions together. Beware: this adds coordination cost. Use it for work that requires integration.
Shorten feedback loops. Move decision-making closer to customers. Reduce approval layers. Beware: this requires trust and capability at the edges.
Explicit roles and responsibilities. Clarify who does what. Reduce ambiguity. Beware: over-specification creates rigidity.
Build deliberate slack. Create time and space for exploration, learning, and recovery. Beware: slack can be captured by low-priority work.
Design rituals and routines. Regular retrospectives, planning cycles, reviews. Structure time to create rhythm. Beware: ritual overload creates meeting fatigue.
The Politics of Structure
Organizational design is never purely technical. It is political. Every structural change redistributes power—and those who lose power will resist.
Practice: Stakeholder mapping. Before proposing structural change, map who benefits and who loses. Anticipate resistance. Build coalitions.
Practice: Incremental change. Radical restructuring often backfires. Small, iterative changes build momentum and allow learning.
Practice: Over-communicate. Change creates anxiety. People need to understand why and what it means for them. Say it three times more than you think necessary.
Structure and Strategy
Structure follows strategy—but also shapes it. What you can do depends on how you are organized.
When strategy changes, structure must follow. Many organizations fail not because their strategy is wrong, but because their structure cannot execute it.
Practice: Strategy-structure alignment review. Regularly ask: does our structure support our strategy? Where are the mismatches?
The Ongoing Work
Organizational design is never finished. The environment changes. The work evolves. The people grow. Structures that worked yesterday may constrain tomorrow.
The best organizations treat structure as a living system—always being refined, never quite complete. They hold structure lightly, willing to change when change is needed.
This is the ethos of adaptive organization: stable enough to execute, flexible enough to evolve.