Coordination Headwind - How Organizations Are Like Slime Molds

My goal is to structure teams around minimizing “coordination headwind,” as described by Alex Komoroske in this deck on seeing organizations as slime mold. The rough idea is that coordination costs (caused by uncertainty and disagreements) increase with scale, and adding managers doesn’t improve things. People’s incentives become misaligned. People... See more

If you look closely, all these problems fundamentally come from:

1. Decreased skin in the game, which reduces team alignment


2. N^2 communication, which creates need for managers and specialization, which reduces individual agency and breadth of learning


3. Reduced risk tolerance, which slows everything down

#1 and #2 are inevitable results of having more emplo... See more

Lack of appropriate scaffolding or structure to direct creative energy. Lots of ideas, little execution.Contributors felt confused with DAO priorities and/or overwhelmed by perceived “messiness.”Systemic contributor over-commitment led to abandoned projects and sub-par work quality.