ORG TOPOLOGIES MAPPING
Language of Org Design
“Most of our teams are CAPS-2—multi-skilled yet incomplete, lacking certain capabilities. There are also functional TASKS-1 parties supporting our CAPS-2 teams. This creates dependencies and challenges that are managed by CAPS-1 and PART-1 groups…”
These few sentences convey a wealth of information! They describe an ecosystem, allowing us to grasp its dynamics holistically, recognize existing challenges, and begin a meaningful conversation about organizational improvement.
Org Topologies introduces this simple but powerful language to clarify organizational development without resorting to “agile” or other framework-specific jargon. This makes it easier to see things as they are, bringing together specialists from different backgrounds and facilitating open, unambiguous discussions about the current situation and the next steps.
There are three common Org Topologies to know, starting with:
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The Resource Topology—a topology characterized by frozen functional archetypes specialized in one domain. Its purpose is to ensure that each unit is 100% utilized (i.e. resource utilization). It is seen in “resource management” approaches where “resource managers” (or project managers) are responsible for planning and monitoring resource allocation and utilization
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The Delivery Topology, compared to the Resource Topology, upgrades delivery units to have fast flow by removing dependencies. Structurally, this typically involves forming complete cross-functional teams, and facilitating a smoother path to “completely done” work. In some domains, this topology is called a “Feature Factory” since Delivery units can provide a near-endless stream of features. Note a strong focus on outputs and local efficiency.
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The Adaptive Topology merges “directing, doing, and delivering” into one holistic unit within the Driving archetypes, where humans, AI agents, and robots collaborate on complex problems in an adaptive way, and the group explores and drives themselves in their ‘car’. The goal of this topology is adaptiveness (easy, cheap change based on learning) and customer-centricity to discover and deliver customer delight.
More can be learned from the Primer.
GET THE PRIMER
Org Topologies™ Primer is a free, comprehensive summary of the Org Topologies™ method to help you map, assess, design, and elevate your organizational ecosystem with a strategic org design approach:
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Two dimensions of org design
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Four organizational characteristics
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Sixteen archetypes within four groups
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Three distinctive organizational topologies
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Change MADE Real method
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Strategic AI adoption
- Blank maps
Framework Mapping
The phrase “we are doing SAFe” (or any other framework) doesn't say much about your current organizational design and its target future state.
Org Topologies offers an alternative: strategic org design, guided by a path that connects business objectives, organizational goals, topologies, and, finally, frameworks.
![[Deutsch] Einführung in Org Topologies™](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d9ef88_fe1b5ea7b4084811ac75138a5858c901~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_1148,h_648,fp_0.50_0.50,q_95,enc_auto/d9ef88_fe1b5ea7b4084811ac75138a5858c901~mv2.png)
![[Deutsch] Aha-Erlebnis mit Org Topologies: Warum wir ohne „Second Agile Wave” nicht wirklich agil arbeiten.](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d9ef88_8f618110ed2948f18684c16b4c6e7422~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_1148,h_648,fp_0.50_0.50,q_95,enc_auto/d9ef88_8f618110ed2948f18684c16b4c6e7422~mv2.png)
Testimonials
Agile and Product Coach
"It was so much easier to describe the FlixBus agile journey using Org Topologies™, which otherwise would need much more explanation and reasoning. Mapping product depth and team skills dimensions bridges the gap between applying frameworks and discovering ways to organize teams. Thank you for the elegant system to visualize organizational growth."
Org. development I Executive coaching
"Last fall I was introduced to the very interesting work by Alexey Krivitsky and Roland Flemm. They have aggregated their enormous base of experiences into a reality-oriented thinking tool. It can help us all create a common language and share a mental map... I tested their very early version on the management in a mid-sized fintech in Europe last fall (approx 15 teams). It was so inspiring to see how it immediately increased the quality of the conversations and their own reasoning on what they were optimizing for."
