Scope isn’t just about client requests. In fact, it is something much more complex: shared mental models, the internal, team-level understanding of what work actually is and how it
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,
Jonathan Gavalas was 36 years old. He worked with his father Joel in a consumer debt relief business. They watched football together on Sundays. He was going through a divorce,
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
