# Why is it needed?
## Most org design is done by people without training
## Most of the org design frameworks are for execs
[To add: an explainer on the existing models, including their history and use.](#user-content-fn-1)[^1]
The existing models are good, useful tools for diagnosis and design. When cooking this up, I had two main issues that I wanted to address.
1. **The models are all pretty old!** They all predate the information revolution at work, which means they‘re good for understanding the organizations we have today, but less instructive for building the organizations we’ll need tomorrow. I wanted something that spoke to the [animating ideas](https://www.responsive.org/manifesto) of the next generation of work: Purpose; Networks; Empowerment; Experimentation; Transparency. (The even more simplified version of this that we used at August was Open Learning Networks, which I think you’ll see is pretty directly carried through in the model below.)
2. **Each of the attributes in the existing models are important, but othering.** With a few exceptions (e.g. relationships/relating and leadership/leading), they’re about *things*. And those *things* are far from the work. It always seems to set up a dynamic where folks are heckling the organization en masse. *Those* people don't have the right skills. *The* strategy is wrong. *This* process is broken. I wanted a model that could be about *things* and *activities,* to create a new dynamic for OD that gets closer to the work. (Another side note: this is even worse with ideas like “People/Process/Tools,” which almost everyone understands to mean “We need new people, new process, and new tools.”)
We can **decode** an organization or team to find its hidden secrets – revealing what needs fixing, and what should stay the same. We can **recode** an organization or team to get more of what we want and less of what we don’t.
[^1]:
---
# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation
If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.
Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:
```
GET https://book.cpj.fyi/why-is-it-needed.md?ask=
```
The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.
Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.
