It’s not just enough for me personally to be running a fast OODA loop—in a large group, everyone needs to be autonomously making frequent, high-quality, local prioritization decisions, without needing a round-trip through me. To get there, they need to be ambiently aware of:

1. what else is going on around them, so they can coordinate and update on new

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Our decentralized approach for decisions passes the torch of responsibility, enabling fast-paced iteration without the need for approval processes. Individuals make urgent, locally optimal decisions. Any misalignments are then ironed out quickly afterward.

Traditional corporate structures rewarded political skill. Knowing how to manage up. Building alliances. Navigating approval processes. Playing the game of bureaucracy.

Flatter structures with radical decision-making authority require different capabilities. You need people who can make decisions when there’s no manager to defer to. Who can work... See more

What do we mean by “decentralization,” anyway? It’s a capacious term, and in the past few years it’s been tossed around more freely than ever. Flocks of birds, free-market economies, cities, peer-to-peer computer networks: these are all considered examples of decentralization. Yet so, too, in other contexts, are the American public-school system

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