← Smoke Signals
Coordination & TrustAugust 12, 2026 · 1 min read

The boxes and the arrows

Organizations manage functions with great care and manage the seams between them almost by accident: even though the seams carry the consequential work.


By Staff

An organization chart is a picture of accountability. It is not a picture of work.

Work moves sideways. It crosses the lines that the chart draws most confidently, and it does so at exactly the moments when clarity matters most: a launch, an escalation, a decision that cannot be reopened later without cost.

Why the seams stay unmanaged

Nobody owns an arrow. Ownership is assigned to boxes, and the incentives follow ownership. So each box optimizes what it can see, and the space between boxes accumulates a cost that no single leader is accountable for reducing.

A better question

Instead of asking who owns this, ask what it costs to move work across this boundary; in waiting, in translation, in repair. The answer is usually available within a week of asking, and it is usually larger than anyone expected.

Newsletter

Find the signal worth keeping.

Receive new writing, book updates, and occasional recommendations for work worth your attention. Thoughtful, useful, and sent only when there is something to say.

No noise. No inbox games. Unsubscribe at any time.