pace layers: changing fast and slow

The Overlap #58

Pace Layers is a fascinating way to think about how organizations change. The core idea:

• Every organization has various layers

• Every layer has its own pace of change

• If one layer changes, another layer must stabilize for the org to hold and sustain the change

In The Clock of the Long Now, Steward Brand proposed that every society has six pace layers:

• Fashion

• Commerce

• Infrastructure

• Governance

• Culture

• Nature

Sudden change in one layer (e.g., more brands in the fashion industry) produces shock in another layer (e.g., more carbon emissions in the atmosphere). From Brand’s article in the Journal of Design and Science:

Each layer must respect the different pace of the others. If commerce, for example, is allowed by governance and culture to push nature at a commercial pace, then all-supporting natural forests, fisheries, and aquifers will be lost. If governance is changed suddenly instead of gradually, you get the catastrophic French and Russian revolutions.

I won’t go on about the history of pace layers. But if you’re interested, The Clock of Long Now is your source. And Brand’s MIT article is a great summary.

Let’s talk about how this applies to organizations.

Organizational Pace Layers

Here’s a slide by Behzod on organizational pace layers.

From his essay, Dancing With Pace Layers:

If I was to map these pace layers out against an organization (and I’m sure that someone has and even more sure that one of you will point me towards it), V0.1 would probably look like:

• (Individual) Work

• Communication

• Tools

• Process

• Culture

• Orientation Niche