# Why is it needed?

## Most org design is done by people without training

## Most of the org design frameworks are for execs

<figure><img src="https://www.cpj.fyi/content/images/2023/10/IMG_0189.jpeg" alt="Weisbord&#x27;s Six Box Diagnostic Model: Purposes, Structure, Rewards, Helpful Mechanisms, Relationships, Leadership. Galbraith&#x27;s Star Model: Strategy, Structure, Processes, Rewards, People.  McKinsey&#x27;s 7S Model: System, Strategy, Structure, Style, Skills, Staff, Shared Values." width="563"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

[<mark style="background-color:purple;">To add: an explainer on the existing models, including their history and use.</mark>](#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]: 
