Convening/Synthesis published
The unit of design.
If the job is no longer what organizations design around, what is? A session on the workflow as the unit, and what breaks when it becomes one.
- Date
- 03 Mar 2026
- Format
- Working session · 24 seats · New York
- Chairs
- Jeff Wald · Tomasz Wierzbicki
- Tests
- Thesis 001 and 005
What the room will test
Workflows are the unit organizations now design around, whether or not their management systems have noticed.
Sent to every seat two weeks before
- Thesis 001, From Jobs to Workflows, v1.3
- Thesis 005, Headcount Is the Wrong Denominator, v1.0
Seats are given to people who will disagree usefully
- Chief operating officerB2B software
- Chief financial officerHealth system
- Head of workforce planningRetail
- FellowsWald, Wierzbicki, Achterberg
What the room concluded
Strong agreement that the job no longer describes the work, and strong disagreement about whether the workflow is stable enough to plan around. The finance participants argued that a unit that changes quarterly cannot carry a budget. That objection produced the v2.0 revision.
- Thesis 001Revised to v2.0 on 10 March. Confidence raised to Strong. The claim now distinguishes the workflow as the unit of design from the job as the unit of contract.
- Field study 03Planning by workflow was scoped from the session and reported in June.
Where the room did not agree
- Whether workflows can carry budgets over more than one planning cycle. Being tested in Field study 03.
- Whether the change requires policy adjustment. Referred to Thesis 001.