Three faulty assumptions people make when trying to understand the behavior of organizations:

• Perfect internal communication
• Perfect internal alignment
• Perfect execution on strategy/plans

If you assume these you will often be confused at the behavior of organizations.

Founder, The Roots of Progress (rootsofprogress.org). I write about the history of technology and the philosophy of progress. Former tech founder.

“Left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing” is a simple go-to for many otherwise inexplicable behaviors.

It's the org version of “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

“Why did they decide to do that stupid thing?!”
• Some people didn't know
• Others didn't agree but got overruled
• What they executed on is not what they planned