“Every organization is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.”
— Arthur W. Jones
Organizations
When every department optimizes locally, the whole system fails. When change initiatives create the resistance they’re meant to overcome.
Organizational Paralysis
The structure:
A company has multiple departments: Engineering, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Legal. Each has clear goals. Engineering wants stability. Sales wants new features. Marketing wants differentiation. Finance wants cost control. Legal wants risk mitigation. Each department acts rationally. Together, they block all movement.
Why each actor is rational:
- Engineering: Pushes back on unstable feature requests (quality matters)
- Sales: Needs features to close deals (revenue matters)
- Marketing: Wants unique positioning (differentiation matters)
- Finance: Rejects projects without clear ROI (profitability matters)
- Legal: Blocks anything with compliance risk (liability matters)
Why it fails collectively:
Every proposal gets vetoed by someone with a legitimate concern. Innovation requires risk—Finance blocks it. Speed requires cutting corners—Legal blocks it. Differentiation requires resources—Finance blocks it. Nobody is wrong. Nothing moves.
The trap: Rational oversight becomes collective paralysis.
Change Initiative Backlash
The structure:
Leadership sees a problem. Launches a change initiative. Hires consultants. Creates task forces. Announces new processes. Employees, already overworked, now have additional meetings, training sessions, and documentation requirements. Productivity drops. Morale drops. Resistance grows. Leadership interprets resistance as “not understanding the vision” and doubles down. More workshops. More mandatory training.
Why each actor is rational:
- Leadership: Sees genuine problems that need solving
- Consultants: Apply proven frameworks (that worked elsewhere)
- Middle management: Implements directives from above
- Employees: Protect their capacity to do actual work
- HR: Measures engagement, sees decline, recommends more communication
Why it fails collectively:
The solution (change initiative) consumes resources needed for the change itself. Employees resist not because they oppose the goal, but because they’re drowning in the process. Resistance confirms leadership’s diagnosis (“culture problem”), leading to more intervention.
The trap: Solving the problem becomes the problem.
Metrics Gaming
The structure:
Organization sets KPIs to measure performance. Teams optimize for those KPIs. KPIs become targets. Goodhart’s Law activates: “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” Teams hit targets while actual performance declines.
Why each actor is rational:
- Leadership: Needs measurable goals (how else to manage?)
- Teams: Optimize for what gets measured (that’s how you get promoted)
- Analytics: Report on defined metrics (that’s the mandate)
- Individuals: Game the system (everyone else does)
Why it fails collectively:
Call center metrics: minimize call time → customers get rushed off. Sales metrics: maximize deals closed → long-term relationships suffer. Code metrics: lines of code written → bloated, unmaintainable systems. Everyone hits their numbers. The organization fails.
The trap: Measuring performance destroys performance.
Best Practices Rigidity
The structure:
Organization adopts “best practices” from successful companies. Standardizes processes. Trains everyone. Creates compliance mechanisms. Market shifts. Best practices become obstacles. Teams request exceptions. Process says no. Innovation dies. Competitors adapt. Company clings to “proven methods.”
Why each actor is rational:
- Process teams: Maintain standards (that’s their job)
- Compliance: Enforce consistency (prevents chaos)
- Leadership: Invested in current methods (sunk cost + reputational risk)
- Innovators: Want to experiment (survival instinct)
- Training: Teaches established methods (what else can they teach?)
Why it fails collectively:
Yesterday’s best practice becomes today’s rigidity. The organization optimized for a world that no longer exists. Adaptation requires abandoning what “works”—but what works is the definition of competence.
The trap: Success creates the conditions for failure.
More examples in this category coming soon.
Related Examples:
[Platform Moderation]
[Peer Review Paradox]
[Emergency Lane Blockage]
Navigate these Structures