01 The conditions

The pyramid was the efficient answer.

Judgement and intelligence were both scarce, and so expensive. Coordination was critical and hard to do at scale. It was not just a preference.

02 What moved

Two of those conditions have moved. One has not.

The price of coordination has fallen. Intelligence has become abundant. Judgement is exactly as scarce as it was.

03 The axis

The axis was position. The axis is now the task.

Every task sits somewhere between knowledge and judgement, whatever the grade of the person holding it. Coordination stopped running down the layers and started running along the line.

03 The axis

Judgement is found throughout the work, not only at the top.

There is no clean line to draw, so there is no layer to remove. The CTO works in from the knowledge end, the CHRO from the judgement end, and the middle is where the organisation gets designed.

Price of coordination High
Availability of intelligence Scarce
Scarcity of judgement Unchanged
POSITION KNOWLEDGE JUDGEMENT coordination NO EDGE · KEEPS MOVING RIGHT
  1. 1Extract tolerances from the drawing
  2. 2Cost the bill of materials
  3. 3Draft the production routing
  4. 4Sequence the shop floor
  5. 5Accept a deviation on a customer part
  6. 6Re-source a failing supplier
CTO works in from the knowledge end neither can draw the middle alone CHRO works in from the judgement end
Before AI
Now

04 The model

Three capability systems. One operating model.

Future Fabric, TenX Labs and DayOne each stand alone. Brought into one design, they become the Composite Work Enterprise: work redesigned once, then distributed across people, intelligent agents and distributed capability.

CompositeWorkforceEnterprise The whole story → Talent Future Fabric Open → AI TenX Labs Open → DistributedCapability DayOne Open →

05 Three capability systems

Three capability systems. One operating model.

06 How we drive value

Three places the redesign shows up.

Every engagement is measured on the same three, against your own baseline, on the process we actually worked on.

Turn any card over

A is the process as it runs today. B is the same process after redesign. Figures shown are illustrative, set against your own baseline at the start of the engagement.

07 The whole thing, in four boards

Everything so far, on one wall.

Keep scrolling and each board slides in front of the last. Nothing is taken away, so you can see the whole argument stacked up at the end.

What goes in?

Board 01 · 04
Future Fabric Talent TenX Labs AI DayOne Distributed Capability Composite Work Enterprise

Three capability systems, each bought and run on its own. Put into one design they stop being three suppliers and start being an operating model.

How does it work?

Board 02 · 04
LOOP TO THE NEXT PROCESS Your AI Operating Plan THE BOARD SIGNS · THE PIVOT BEFORE SIGN-OFF The CTO builds the capability AFTER SIGN-OFF The CHRO re-forms the organisation 1 Find the hotspots 2 Build capability, every layer 3 Write the plan 4 Build the agents 5 Re-form the organisation 6 Govern people and agents

Everything sequences off one signature. Before it, capability gets built on your own work and the plan gets written. After it, agents get built and the organisation gets re-formed around what is left.

What does it change?

Board 03 · 04
TRADITIONAL PYRAMID BY POSITION TASK BY TASK COMPOSITE WORK ORG BY JUDGEMENT AGENT CADRE

Shape, not scale. Roles get written around the decisions a person owns, and the agents that took the repeatable work are staffed and governed as their own cadre.

Why does it matter?

Board 04 · 04
Cost COST OF CAPABILITY A B High → Low Growth RATE OF GROWTH A B 17% → 21% Throughput JOBS DONE, SAME WEEK A B 5 → 7

Measured on your baseline, on the process we worked on, before and after. Figures shown are illustrative.

Scroll to slide the next board across

08 Begin

Pick one part of the work.

The model does not have to arrive all at once. It starts with one process, one function or one entity, designed so the next part can follow. Cost, growth and throughput get measured on that one thing first.

Start a conversation

Composite Work Enterprise

Future Fabric for org and talent. TenX Labs for AI. DayOne for nano-GCC. Designed as one operating model, delivered in the order the work requires.

Organisations we have done this work with

  • Sandvik
  • BMW
  • Knorr-Bremse
  • Tredence
  • Amagi
  • Rivet
  • Selerix
  • Ultra Corpotech

+ Field Notes

One note a week, on the work.

Research, articles and podcast episodes on org design, AI in the enterprise, finance and GCCs. Written for people running the change, not reporting on it.

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