{
  "handle": "OrgChartBias",
  "gloss": "Every organisational structure makes some tasks 'losers' with high laterality and weak communication; reorganising only moves the problem",
  "mechanism": "An org chart sets who is naturally aligned (sharing a manager and goals), which actions have low {{laterality}}, and where regular contact makes {{peripheral_hitchhiking}} likely. It also encodes a negative hypothesis: that people placed far apart will rarely need to work or talk together. In a complex organisation with many kinds of task, some important tasks always fall across those gaps and suffer. Creating a dedicated team for a current priority helps that priority but raises laterality for others, and promotion amplifies a person's weaknesses as well as strengths: moving the blanket to cover the shoulders exposes the feet. The chart is one shape, a form of {{shape_control}}. Rather than repeatedly replacing it, compensate for its bias with behaviours that let the organisation change shape cheaply within the same structure.",
  "invariants": [
    "Any structure favours some tasks and disadvantages others",
    "A reorganisation that lowers laterality for one task raises it for others",
    "Communication and alignment are concentrated along the chart's existing lines"
  ],
  "failure_modes": [
    "Reorganising around every new priority, at high cost and confusion",
    "Blaming failures on 'lack of alignment' rather than on the structure's built-in bias",
    "Reorganising for a priority that will not last"
  ],
  "_meta": {
    "path": [
      "Society",
      "Coordination"
    ],
    "ring": 2,
    "tier": 2,
    "source": "Adam Timlett, On the Origin of Risk (2025), Ch 11 p.80-87"
  },
  "sema_id": "sema:OrgChartBias#mh:SHA-256:71b1eb2b8eea243b25753f2e17134f501ebe6982f33ebe23b34f1d71af266063",
  "sema_ref": "OrgChartBias#71b1",
  "sema_stub": "71b1",
  "dependencies": {
    "references": {
      "laterality": "sema:Laterality#mh:SHA-256:f864c6713f7a81a2b9df3c13674ca1c30f592728f0a389d5e0cc45212b948c7b",
      "peripheral_hitchhiking": "sema:PeripheralHitchhiking#mh:SHA-256:0672d974b11990531d4c222670dbb66a5bf691e2aa9d6eab14707c44324cd68f",
      "shape_control": "sema:ShapeControl#mh:SHA-256:185f506a48d483fc549fb77ece35dc1f3c54180a0c31657960a2fa6daf155a2d"
    }
  },
  "sema_layer": "Society",
  "sema_category": "Coordination",
  "used_by": {}
}