jott - how_to_fail

# How to Fail as an Organization in 2026

*by [@bwasti](https://x.com/bwasti)*

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There are a lot of fancy new tools these days. Here's what to do.

### Productivity

New tooling is purely an accelerant for what otherwise would be
the exact same work done by humans.
Everything is simply faster and requires fewer people.
The only change you'll need to make
is headcount allocation and timeline estimation.
All other considerations should be the same as last year.

### Adoption shear
<center>
<img src=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Simple_shear_in_2D.svg>
</center>

Some folks will adopt these tools much faster than others,
creating shear stresses in your organization structure.
This will resolve itself on its own: if a tool is good everyone will use it, right?
No need to push for adoption. Everyone is a rational and fully informed actor.

Intra-team communication might seem difficult with the growing
difference in velocity expectations.
Bias towards whichever team moves fastest and makes the largest commitments.
The slow teams clearly underestimate the impact these tools will have on
productivity, but there is no possibility the fast teams have overestimated anything.

### Verticality

The next big thing to do is enforce team boundaries.
Curious and capable ICs are now able to unblock themselves
by rapidly learning about and making changes to products owned by
other teams in their vertical.
This might encroach on established egos. Disallow it.

First, ensure that teams
cannot unblock themselves but instead maintain dependencies on other teams.
As a cherry on top,
increase expectations between teams,
since everyone is more productive now.

Then, encourage teams to plant flags and reject contributions from others.
Their relevance should be tied to discrete concepts of ownership and expertise.
The gradient of "ability to contribute" and understanding is too complex to reward properly,
roles should be isolated.

### Documentation

Limit writing documentation as it slows people down. Prefer telephone.
Ensure senior managers and ICs build their ability to find and more importantly hide stakeholders
so that communication always goes through their respective teams for efficiency.
This will naturally ensure most information related to process
exists purely in private chats. Private chats are faster.

Encourage only ever sharing polished internal releases.
Since productivity is higher, there's never a need to publish a work in progress.
This will likely cause multiple teams to work
on the same small things in isolation. Competition is good for producitivity.

### Burnout

People need to work hard not smart. The tools are smart now,
people don't need to be. Things will naturally work out
if everyone jsut works really hard and no deep thinking is done about
structuring collaboration or incentivizing healthy contributions.

Also realize that ICs are just watching YouTube and waiting for code to
be generated for them. 80 hour weeks are the new 40 hours - make that clear.

### FOMO

Leadership is most respected when there is clear and persistent communication of
insecurity. If your organization does not feel it is about to miss out, it will
not work hard. This is good for the psyche of all employees.

### Conclusion

Watch out.