Organisations Are Living Systems

Highlights

• Culture shapes system behaviour

• Informal systems matter

• Design must reflect reality

Organisations are not machines that can be reconfigured at will. They are living systems with memory, habits, informal structures, and cultural constraints.

Technology that ignores organisational reality struggles to take root. Formal charts and documented processes rarely describe how work actually happens. Informal networks often determine adoption and effectiveness.

The goal of recognising organisations as living systems is to design technology that fits the environment it enters. The outcome is higher adoption, smoother transformation, and systems that support rather than disrupt organisational coherence.

Primary Alliances: Organise · Build