Hidden Patterns – Clay Parker Jones

Both approaches waste the collective intelligence of the organization while creating frustration and disengagement. Teams need a way to make decisions that balances individual autonomy with collective wisdom. Advice is a middle path—one that preserves individual agency while ensuring decisions benefit from diverse perspectives and organizational knowledge. It creates the conditions for both the empowered action and thoughtful consideration that result in teams that DO THE RIGHT THING (26).

Codify a clear advice process13 where anyone can make decisions that affect their work, provided they: Seek input from those who will be significantly impacted; Consult those with relevant expertise; Notify affected parties of the final decision. The person closest to the work initiates and owns the decision. They must actively seek advice but are not bound to follow it—they simply must show they have genuinely considered the input received. The scope of consultation should match the scale and impact of the decision.

This preserves individual agency while ensuring decisions benefit from collective wisdom. It creates responsibility without bureaucracy and maintains speed while accessing diverse perspectives. Advice as a way of working was popularized by Dennis Bakke in Joy at Work, based on his experience at AES Corporation.14 Similar approaches emerged in self-managing organizations like Morning Star and Buurtzorg.15 Each case demonstrated that nonbinding input could maintain decision quality and alignment without creating bureaucratic bottlenecks or diluting accountability.

Note that this is a process for using advice to make major business decisions, but it applies to feedback conversations as well. You can put this pattern into practice as a leader or colleague just by adding something like “What I’m about to share is my advice” before providing counsel to someone on their work. For this to be genuine, you’ve got to mean it; if you frame direction as advice, you’ll erase any PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY (3) that you were trying to build up.

Begin by clearly communicating the steps of the advice process to all team members: 1. Someone identifies an opportunity or problem within their DOMAIN (23). 2. They notify relevant parties that they are exploring a decision. 3. They actively seek input from those affected and those with expertise.

4. They carefully consider all advice received. 5. They make and communicate their decision, explaining how input was incorporated. Start with smaller decisions to build trust and capability. Use tools that make it easy to document consultation and share decisions, which could be as simple as WHITEBOARD AT INTERSECTIONS (74).

The quality of input received dramatically impacts the effectiveness of the advice process.

This book is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information about organizational design. Neither the author nor the publisher is engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services by publishing this book. If any such assistance is required, the services of qualified professionals should be sought. The author and publisher will not be responsible for any liability, loss, or risk incurred as a result of the use and application of any information contained in this book.

Hidden Patterns copyright © 2026 by Clay Parker Jones All rights reserved. Except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored, transmitted, or used in any manner whatsoever, including for training artificial intelligence (AI) technologies or for automated text and data mining, without prior written permission from the publisher. Matt Holt is an imprint of BenBella Books, Inc. 8080 N. Central Expressway Suite 1700 Dallas, TX 75206 benbellabooks.com Send feedback to [email protected] BenBella and Matt Holt are federally registered trademarks.

First E-Book Edition: March 2026 Library of Congress Control Number: 2025042184 ISBN 9781637748589 (hardcover) ISBN 9781637748596 (electronic) Editing by Katie Dickman Copyediting by Scott Calamar Proofreading by Mary White and Lisa Story Text design and composition by Jordan Koluch Cover design by Brigid Pearson and Clay Parker Jones (author) Emoji on page 13 courtesy of Neo – stock.adobe.com Special discounts for bulk sales are available. Please contact [email protected]. OceanofPDF.com For my mom and dad, who remind me that the points need to line up And to Emily, whom I couldn’t have done this without OceanofPDF.com Contents Why Is It Like This?

Why Does It Stay Like This? How This Book Works FOUNDATIONS 1. True Purpose 2. Rule of Law 3. Structural & Psychological Safety 4. Expanded Available Power 5. Curiosity 6. Do No Harm 7. Wholeness 8. Role-Soul Distinction 9. Dissolvability 10. Consent & Consensus 11. Pace Layers 12. Cooperation STRUCTURING 13. Network of Teams 14. Distributed Management 15. Elections 16. Purpose, Customer, Platform 17. Platform Teams 18. Self-Managed Teams 19.

Lean Teams 20. Talent Marketplace 21. Guilds 22. Chapters 23. Domains, Assets & Standards 24. Upward Representation 25. Team Incentives DIRECTION 26. Do the Right Thing 27. Active Steering 28. Objectives & Key Results 29. Strategy Heuristic 30. Structured Decision-Making 31. Advice 32. Transparency 33. Relative Targets 34. Pull Updates 35. Demos 36. Metrics Review 37. Backlog Management 38.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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