Informality becomes expensive

The experience

Watching the informal, improvisational ways that once made the company fast become expensive, inconsistent, and increasingly chaotic

Common first interpretation

Process will make us slow and corporate.

What it may mean

Informality is an efficient coordination mechanism until complexity exceeds what shared memory and proximity can reliably sustain.

Developmental demand

Make critical work explicit enough to be reliable while preserving appropriate flexibility.

Trap if unresolved

The company protects informality after it has stopped producing speed.

In the book

Ch. 6 - Informality Stops Scaling