One deadline for all five KanDDDinsky pre-conference workshops: early bird ends Friday, 7 Aug. Two days with @ziobrando.bsky.social, @suksr.bsky.social, @roundcrisis.com, @cyetain.com or @heimeshoff.bsky.social - 12–13 Oct, Berlin, right before the conference. kandddinsky.com

Broken things at work keep breaking, and we rarely have the language for why. @trond.hjorteland.com introduces Open Systems Theory, then we diagnose real dysfunctions live, together. Get info & RSVP: buff.ly/H580ohp

Organisational Dysfunctions and Open Systems Theory

Most teams can list what is broken at work but lack a language for why it keeps recurring. Trond Hjorteland diagnoses real dysfunctions using Open Systems…

virtualddd.com

Four weeks, four essays. If you missed any of them over the summer: — "We already know what's wrong", why the field is full of frameworks that name dysfunctions accurately but cannot explain why they keep returning.

"OST neglects the individual." The objection is straightforward: OST talks about design principles, structural outputs, and groups. Where does the individual go? What about personal ambition, the drive to grow, career paths, the need to matter? It is a reasonable worry, and it deserves an answer.

The full KanDDDinsky 2026 program is live. 38 sessions, 47 speakers, 14-15 October in Berlin. Early-bird tickets (800 EUR) close this Friday, 31 July. After that, 950. kandddinsky.com

Speaking at KanDDDinsky 2026 in Berlin, 14-15 October. Two days of learning together with one of the best DDD communities out there, including some honest talk about what AI is doing to the way we build business software. Early bird (800 EUR) closes Friday, 31 July. kandddinsky.com/

"When it is found that the basic assumptions which generate a logical system have no reality value then the chain of logic with which people bind themselves and others will be found to be insubstantial and to see, that that which binds us becomes unsubstantial...

Every time an organisation tries to democratise its work, the same three-layer dynamic plays out. The first layer is the people closest to the experiment. They work hard, they believe in it, and results follow. The pilot succeeds. The case study is written up. Leadership is encouraged. ....

v1.01 of Organisational Dysfunctions is out today. The three summer essays are now in the book as part of a restructured Intermezzo. Part Two and Part Three have been substantially updated.

Fair warning: this one gets philosophical. Someone once told me that OST is structuralism, and that we should embrace poststructuralism instead. It was a serious objection from a thoughtful person. Because if OST were structuralism, the criticism would be right. Structuralism holds that meaning...

I have just finished the read and can only say that this is relevant to anyone working in Tech nowadays. Strongly recommended!

Trond Hjorteland@trond.hjorteland.com · last mo.

Most organisations are trying to fix the wrong things. 🎉 Organisational Dysfunctions: Open Systems Theory Explains is out today! Written for developers, architects, agile coaches, and executives who have invested in change and wondered why so little of it stuck.

There's a certain frustration that comes from doing everything right, by the book, and still watching it fail. Not because the methods were wrong, but because the real problem was somewhere else entirely. Watch, Listen and Read @heimeshoff.bsky.social his full story: buff.ly/6bJ9wv4

Merrelyn Emery just released a retrospective on the infamous '65 causal texture paper, showing how impactful it has been to our understanding of systems and their environment. "Fifty Years On: The Far Reaching Consequences of The Causal Texture of Organizational Environments #OpenSystemsTheory

Best review so far. This is why I wrote it! Writing, rather, as I'm working on more material for it. I have to stop at one point, I promise, but I will also add some longer pieces, such as essays, like the ones in the intermezzo.

Eduardo Hernacki@runlevel0.me · 4w ago

Happy to give one, this book explains pretty much why I was so frustrated in terms of working culture in tech in Germany, and knowing it a few years would save me soo much frustration!

BTW I am enjoying very much the reading so far! Also recommended it to my work colleagues :D

The book has been out for two days. People have already chosen to spend money on it, which still feels a little unreal to me. Some have run into issues on Leanpub, which I have reported, and they are working to get them sorted. Maybe they are DP2? If you have had trouble accessing it, get in touch.

Trond Hjorteland@trond.hjorteland.com · last mo.

Most organisations are trying to fix the wrong things. 🎉 Organisational Dysfunctions: Open Systems Theory Explains is out today! Written for developers, architects, agile coaches, and executives who have invested in change and wondered why so little of it stuck.

Organisational Dysfunctions: Open Systems Theory Explains by Trond Hjorteland is a new release on Leanpub! Most organisations are trying to fix the wrong things. This book names the dysfunctions they keep running into and explains, through Open … leanpub.com/organisation...

Most organisations are trying to fix the wrong things. 🎉 Organisational Dysfunctions: Open Systems Theory Explains is out today! Written for developers, architects, agile coaches, and executives who have invested in change and wondered why so little of it stuck.

This made my day. Someone read the dysfunctions series, found it useful as an internal compass against bias and instinct, built it into a Claude skill, and shipped it to their company AI hub. That is exactly what the series is for. Not a framework to implement, but a lens to think with.

The dysfunctions in the series of mine are set in software organisations. That is the world I work in, and where the examples are most concrete. But the structural patterns underneath are not really about software.

No software development organization needs a standardized process. 40 years ago, Watts Humphrey, funded by the US Department of Defense, came up with something called the Capability Maturity Model (CMM)—one of many grasping-at-straw attempts to get DoD spending and quality under control. 1/11

It's finally PREORDER DAY for The Psychology of Software Teams!!!!! Which means you are just a few clicks away from your own personal guidebook to being more human in tech 🥰 www.drcathicks.com#book

Dr. Cat Hicks

Leading the science of software success

drcathicks.com

Organisational Dysfunction of the Day Designed to undermine Context: The organisation has restructured into self-managing teams. The design work was done carefully: clear boundaries, whole tasks, and genuine coordination within the group. For a while, things improve. Then the friction starts...

"To conclude, the tech industry spent decades trying to fix management processes, only to realise they were fighting a losing battle against the structural gravity of Conway’s Law and its implications on innovation and market leadership. Mediocrity is the default. Success is optional. Just saying …"

Trunk-Based Thierry (they/them)@tdpauw.bsky.social · last mo.

Is Conway's Law just a hunch? Or is it a law? Conway didn't provide a proof in 1968. But decades later, academic research confirms the hypothesis. Part 2 of "Beyond the Shades of Conway's Law" has been published. Validation: The Research & Reality Check thinkinglabs.io/articles/202...

Sixty-three dysfunctions. I did not plan to write that many. What I did not plan either was finding the same pattern underneath all of them. The standups that feel like status reports. The retrospectives nobody acts on. The empowerment that reverts. The strategy that dissolves.

rganisational Dysfunction of the Day The agile PMO Context: The teams are working well, or well enough. Sprints are running, retrospectives are happening, and there is some genuine ownership of the work. Then the question arrives from above: how do we scale this? The organisation has hundreds...

Organisational Dysfunction of the Day The pair that runs everything Context: Your team has two people who seem to understand both the work and each other. Everyone defers to them in standups. Their pull requests move faster. The real design decisions happen between those two, usually in a...

I like this one. "It's just a job" sounds fine on the surface, but is actually a sign of an environment stuck in a positive feedback loop of contempt. Quickly becomes toxic.

Trond Hjorteland@trond.hjorteland.com · 2mo ago

Organisational Dysfunction of the Day It's just a job Context: The workplace is tolerable. Not great, but manageable. You have learned when to speak and when to stay quiet. You have learned not to care too much about decisions made above you. You protect your energy where you can. Then one...

People seem to think that the only attitudes you could have towards AI is enthusiasm or fear, and leave out very viable options like shrugging and disgust.

Models are reductive, however, they are not other than that which they attempt to conceptualize. Instead they become another part of the complex they are attempting to observe. Models have agency.