Most agency leaders I work with are convinced the chaos comes from talent gaps, culture issues, or individual behavior. After 200+ engagements, I can tell you: it almost never does.
Assemblers, architects, and the collapse of the formulation premium
Most of what we call knowledge work is formulation.
Not content production. Not information processing. Formulation — the act of applying individual
Speed has always been structural. AI just makes that impossible to ignore.
Most AI pilots return improvements somewhere around 10%. That's not nothing, but it's chump
Most conversations about AI and innovation assume a simple replacement story. As automation improves, human work recedes. The messy becomes structured. Judgment gives way to systems.
That framing misses what
If we are going to redesign organizations for an AI era, we need to be clear about one thing up front: Tools have almost always pulled people apart.
In organizatiomns,
As organizations rush into AI adoption, most of the attention is on productivity gains. Less visible—and far more consequential—is the erosion of the one capability that will actually
Jack Skeels, Working paper - February 2026
Abstract
Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) explains firm boundaries and governance structures as mechanisms for minimizing coordination costs under uncertainty, opportunism, and bounded rationality.
Many organizations believe better communication comes from better behavior: clearer expectations, more awareness, more courtesy.
But politeness does not protect focus.
And awareness does not override structural incentives.
As work
If you follow the headlines, you would think the U.S. job market is unraveling. Mass layoffs. AI replacing humans. A future where hiring people is already a mistake. A
(and what it accidentally teaches us about how business actually works)
Every so often, someone becomes a teacher without intending to. In this case, it’s Sam Altman.
Not because
Say hello to Better Company and jackskeels.com
Hey there. Sorry if it’s been a while. Lots of changes.
About fifteen years ago, I set out to make agile
AI may accelerate some things, but that doesn't mean that the organization will go faster.
It’s common to ask why organizations don’t move faster. Speed is
