This Mental Model is an approach to understanding organizational dysfunction through the lens of Systems Thinking. I hope this will uncover a way of diagnosing why teams and organizations struggle by separating what is being observed from the systems that cause those frictions.
System Stack
Steering
| Entity | Role | Core Question |
|---|---|---|
| Values | What matters | What tradeoffs matter? |
| Guiding Principles | How we act on values | How should we operate? |
Mechanics
| Entity | Role | Core Question |
|---|---|---|
| System Principles | Immutable laws of reality | How does reality behave? |
| Structures | System design & architecture | How is the system set up? |
| Conditions | Current state of key enablers | What is the system’s current state? |
| Capacities | Abilities enabled by conditions | What can this system actually do right now? |
| Failure Mechanisms | Patterns that degrade performance | What is breaking down? |
| Friction | Observable symptoms | What feels wrong? |
| Intervention | Targeted changes to the system | What should we try? |
In Metaphor
| Entity | Car Repair | Organizations |
|---|---|---|
| Values | The values of the mechanic: right vs. fast, careful vs. cheap. | What the organization actually rewards: speed vs quality, predictability vs adaptability, cost vs durability, optics vs outcomes. |
| Guiding Principles | - Clean Mechanic: Diagnose before replacing. Test before swapping. Start with simplest explanation. - Profit Driven Shop: Prioritize high-margin repairs. Replace instead of diagnose. Upsell when uncertain. | - Healthy Org: Validate before committing. Prefer reversible decisions. Expose uncertainty early. - Profit/Optics Driven Org: Commit early to create certainty. Optimize for visibility. Avoid surfacing risk. |
| System Principles | Internal combustion physics, thermodynamics, electrical laws (how engines must behave). | Coordination cost increases with scale, feedback delays distort perception, queues create delays, local optimization undermines system performance. |
| Structures | Engine, Tires, Lights, Doors, etc. | Org design, team boundaries, decision rights, incentives, tooling (Jira, dashboards), governance models, intake processes. |
| Conditions | Fuel quality, oil level, temperature, maintenance state, sensor integrity. | Trust, transparency, psychological safety, clarity of goals, data integrity, workload balance (WIP), stakeholder alignment. |
| Capacities | Generate consistent power, respond predictably to acceleration, maintain safe operating temperature, stop reliably under load. | Make clear decisions, adapt to new information, coordinate across teams, deliver reliably, learn from feedback, represent reality accurately. |
| Failure Mechanisms | Fuel starvation, overheating, sensor drift, battery discharge. | Decision bottlenecks, information distortion, priority thrashing, hidden work accumulation, dependency gridlock, feedback delays. |
| Friction | Check engine light, rough idle, overheating, poor acceleration. | Constantly changing priorities, missed expectations, slow delivery, rework, confusion about ownership, lack of trust in plans/data. |
| Intervention | Replace spark plugs, clean fuel injectors, replace the sensor, change the oil. | WIP Limits, RACI, Shortening Feedback Loops, Probabilistic Forecasting, Transparency, and Dependency Elimination. |