Rule 3 - Everything is decentralized
About the way the organization is structured
Summary - The basic building blocks of the organization are Units. Every Unit is part of 7 distinct Domains, which are Marketing, Operations, Innovation, Humans, Support, Hackers and Leadership. Units are led by Captains. Domains are led by Admirals. The 6 Admirals form the Leadership. Each Unit - and thus Domain - has its own specific set of tasks and responsibilities, but all are dedicated to creating a sustainable maritime industry. The entire organization is referred to as the Mothership.
The Mothership
Mr. Sustainability is not a family. We are a sports team, and strive to be the best in our league. That means we structure our organization differently than others.
The maximum size of our organization - ever - is roughly 150 people. Why? This is the suggested ‘cognitive limit’ of humans, also called Dunbar’s Number. Because we like to give things in our organization a maritime connotation, we refer to the entirety of our organization as the Mothership. This can be viewed as an ecosystem of devoted organizations and people working to make the maritime industry sustainable.
Domains
The Mothership is divided into 7 ‘Domains’. These are Marketing, Operations, Innovation, Humans, Support, Hackers and Leadership. These domains have their own specific set of task and responsibilities in the greater whole, but all work together for the same cause: to make the maritime industry sustainable. Each domain is lead by an ‘Admiral’, who is in charge of the decision making process unless stated otherwise (see rule 2). The 6 different Admirals combined form Leadership.
Leadership - leadership is not just about setting an example and knowing how to lead. It is about understanding why to follow. Each board member has chief of staffs, powder monkeys, not assistants (from blitz scaling)
Marketing - define the client and understand what adds value to the client. Understand where and from who to make a passive income.
CCO determines how it looks. CCO is the company mascotte.
Operations - make sure the job is done successfully.
COO is chief troubleshooter. COO gets the job done. Just do it.
Innovation - be curious and create the work of the future. They can also act as the internal consultancy for (process) improvement and analysis of the company (not market, that is marketing).
CTO determines how to do it in the future.
Human Being Management - ensure every member of the organization achieves its true potential.
CEO is captain/admiral (pending size). CEO looks ahead and determines what to do.
Support - make sure all problems of the rest of the organization are taken away and they can focus on effective tasks.
CFO is the resource magician (make sure nobody ever wonders how it was managed in the first place).
Hackers - the team of hacker wizards that automate and digitize everything. They make it look like magic.
CIO determines how to do it now or preferably, how to have it automated.
Units
Domains themselves are divided into different teams, which are referred to as Units. These are the basic building blocks of the entire Mothership. These teams act as separate, independent parts of the entire Mothership, each with a specific task. The Units are led by Captains, who can be regarded as a team coach that leads and motivates the Crewmates of the Unit. It is the responsibility of the Captain to ensure every Crewmate achieves its full potential.
Every Unit is part of a Domain. The Domain itself, the amount of Units and thus Captains are arranged according to the wishes of the Admiral. There is no fixed arrangement of Units (yet), it is up to the Admiral to decide. This is done in order to make the organization flexible and adaptable (rule 1).
Each Unit also needs to think about leadership as an army does. There need to be clear lines of command (who decides what) and it needs to be very clear what happens when people leave the unit (for a promotion or whatever reason). This needs to be very clear especially in times of crises. Much can be learned about the chain of command in an army. It is set up to be anti-fragile, as chaos has improved armies by ‘removing’ the disorganized and non-functional organized armies.
Everything is Decentralized
Every Domain and Unit can set their own specific set of non-negotiables, which can be added to the Mothership’s non-negotiables, tagged by the Domain or Unit to signify to whom the non-negotiables apply to. Each Unit - and thus Domain - performs their tasks within the given set of non-negotiables. The tasks are defined according to the Everything is a Project principle, rule 5. That means each Unit - and thus Domain - has their own Goals (Purpose), Guidelines (non-negotiables), Accountability, Resources and Consequences.
Where does this organization come from?
This decentralized organizational setup is inspired by the Lattice structure of Gore companies. The lattice model is largely attributed to Bill Gore, founder of W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc. When establishing his company in the 1950s, Gore opted for a decentralized model to ensure every individual in the organization was connected to each other. He termed it a 'lattice' to emphasize the focus on interconnection. This structure ties in perfectly with Mr. Sustainability’s values - curiosity, courage, collaboration - as it provides the most amount of trust and responsibility to all members.