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"A bad system will beat a good person every time." — W. Edwards Deming
Every organizational unit carries a mandate: a bundle of authority and responsibility to decide, act, and deliver results within a defined scope.
These two dimensions determine how each unit comes to life — whether this is a person, a team, an AI agent, or a temporary project group.
Together, the mandates shape the capabilities each unit is allowed to apply and the actions it is empowered to take.
If you want to improve organizational performance, influence how people behave, and eventually shape the organizational culture, adjusting these mandates is one of the most powerful activities you can undertake.
Combining two axes of mandates gives us four distinctive modes of organizational intelligence. Just as people can be "word smart" or "logic smart," organizations express different intelligences through their structure and mandates.
Oversees the whole solution space with centralized control. Lacks skills to create value directly but adds value by coordinating others' work through planning and control.
Focused on owning outcomes and shaping what gets built next. Blends discovery and delivery, using real customer signals to refine both the problem and the solution.
Highly skilled in narrow domains. Excel at precision, quality, and efficiency within well-defined boundaries. Act as deep specialists focused on defined tasks rather than outcomes.
Creates value independently within a defined work area. Masters a complete Definition of Done, shipping results quickly while staying within defined boundaries.
Three common organizational topologies — each with a distinct structural shape that optimizes for a different kind of performance.
Performance through resource efficiency and deep specialization
Work is divided by function. People specialize deeply and are assigned work that fits their skills. Resource managers coordinate planning, allocation, and monitoring.
Performance through fast, predictable flow
Functional workers are remixed into cross-functional teams organized around specific features, product areas, or service types. Each team handles end-to-end workflows within well-defined scopes.
Performance through flexibility, innovation, and resilience
Sub-units merge into a larger networked system — a "bigger brain" — focused on solving a shared goal. Broad mandates enable high adaptability but require sustained investment in learning, transparency, and psychological safety.
The rise of AI does not change the responsibility of aligning structure with strategy — but it does expand the options. Used thoughtfully, AI can strengthen an organization's intelligence. Used carelessly, it can simply amplify existing dysfunctions.
Strategic AI starts by understanding which capabilities are missing and then using AI to help build them. And that might be different for each of the organizational intelligences.
Combined with the M.A.D.E. org change loop, strategic use of AI can make the change easier and more sustainable. For instance, by lowering the costs of multi-skilling.
As we say in the 10X Org book: "First Design, Then AI." AI must come only after the organization's direction is clear.
The 10X Org principles provide that system. They are not tactics or best practices to be cherry-picked, but a coherent design logic for organizations that can learn, adapt, and perform at 10X scale. Each principle builds on the previous ones—moving from ownership and intent, through structural choices and learning loops, toward sustained human and organizational capability in the age of AI.
Sustainable improvement endures only when the organization truly owns the change.
Make ownership concrete through deliberate system design.
Focus change on skills and work mandates to reshape what the organization can see, learn, and act on.
Replace ideology with intent. Different goals demand different structural choices.
The M.A.D.E. loop—Map, Assess, Design, Elevate—turns change into continuous evolution.
Design organizations that move toward where value is emerging.
Protect improvements from local optimization by embedding a clear primary goal.
Use AI strategically to accelerate learning and extend human capabilities to 10X potential.
Discover how to shape intelligence with mandates, choose the right topology for your context, and leverage AI strategically in the full book.
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