# Map your organization > Map your organization with a simple language and one map of two mandates, then see how it really works. Learn the four intelligences and start with free tools. URL: https://www.orgtopologies.com/mapping ## Map your organization. MADE · STEP 1 · MAP A simple language and one map to see how your organization really works — without “agile” or framework jargon. You can’t figure out where to go next until you know where you are. ## Learn the Org Topologies approach ACADEMY Practitioner (C-OTP) and Consultant (C-OTC) classes, live online and in person. Visit the Academy → ## Two mandates, one map THE MAP Place every unit — a person, a team or an AI agent — by the two mandates it is given, not by its title. → Which skills a unit may apply. Left of the divider it is incomplete: it needs others to deliver customer value. Right of it, complete: it delivers without dependencies. ↑ How much of the work a unit owns. Below the divider, tasks and capabilities: outputs. Above it, partial and whole solutions: outcomes. More output does not mean more outcomes. ## Four intelligences, shaped by mandates What an organization can sense, decide and do does not live in its people or its tools. It emerges from the mandates each unit is given. Narrow mandates constrain intelligence; broad, coherent ones expand it. A position on the map describes organizational power, not human worth. directing DIRECTING Coordination intelligence Oversees the whole solution space with centralized control. Lacks skills to create value directly but adds value by coordinating others’ work through planning and control. A business analyst writing requirements. risks an illusion of control — unless it brings leaders closer to real work. driving DRIVING Adaptive intelligence Focused on owning outcomes and shaping what gets built next. Blends discovery and delivery, using real customer signals to refine both the problem and the solution. A three-person startup, or a team-of-teams. a multiplier that eases cognitive load in new domains. doing DOING Specialization intelligence Highly skilled in narrow domains. Excel at precision, quality, and efficiency within well-defined boundaries. Act as deep specialists focused on defined tasks rather than outcomes. A line cook executing recipes perfectly. automates tasks — but faster tasks only speed up local output. delivering DELIVERING Flow intelligence Creates value independently within a defined work area. Masters a complete Definition of Done, shipping results quickly while staying within defined boundaries. An e-commerce search team. as a teacher, lowers the cost of learning the wider system. The two dividers cut the map into four quadrants: Directing, Driving, Doing and Delivering — the four intelligences. FROM THE BOOK · 10X ORG, PRINCIPLE 3: SHAPE INTELLIGENCE WITH MANDATES Just as people can be “word smart,” “logic smart,” “music smart,” and so on, organizations express different smarts—intelligences—through their structured mandates given to org units. Organizational intelligence is not a fixed trait and does not reside in individuals. These qualities emerge from the system itself—specifically from the mandates that define who is allowed to decide, act, learn, and shape outcomes. When mandates are narrow, intelligence is constrained. When mandates are broad and coherent, intelligence expands. The question is no longer which intelligence is “better,” but which combination best supports the current strategic challenge—and how that mix must evolve as strategy changes. … Organizations are not locked into a single intelligence; they can intentionally develop neglected ones and combine them to support performance. ## Sixteen archetypes, one language DETAILED MAPPING · THE 4×4 The 2×2 shows the four intelligences. For detailed mapping of org units there is a 4×4 version: four levels on each axis and 16 archetypes — common patterns of how a unit is structured and operates, each with a short name. The prefix names the work-mandate row (TASKS, CAPS, PART, WHOLE); the digit names the skills-mandate column, counting from the left. So CAPS-3 reads “end-to-end @ capability” — a complete unit, output-oriented, in the Delivering group. Functional — specialists in one functional area, e.g. a movie costume department. Multi-skill — cross-functional but still incomplete, e.g. a surgical team relying on post-op care. End-to-end — everything needed to deliver complete value, e.g. a software feature team. Expanding — end-to-end, with the mandate to acquire new skills when needed, e.g. a special-forces team. Tasks — fine-grained tasks matching one expertise, e.g. a sous-chef preparing ingredients. Capabilities — a full capability (feature, function, service element), e.g. a claims-processing group. Partial solution — one business vertical, e.g. Uber Ride versus Uber Eats. Whole solution — holistic problems and customer value, with no permanent separation inside the unit, e.g. a two-person Instagram-like startup. Mapping Language ECOSYSTEM 1 · TODAY Most of the teams are CAPS-2: multi-skilled, yet incomplete, lacking certain capabilities. Functional TASKS-1 specialists support them. That creates dependencies, which CAPS-1 and PART-1 groups manage. ECOSYSTEM 2 · IMPROVED The specialists join the teams, so most teams become CAPS-3: end-to-end, with every skill needed to deliver a whole capability. One team grows into CAPS-4 and learns new skills when the work asks for them. With far fewer dependencies, the CAPS-1 coordination group is no longer needed; a PART-1 group still sets the direction. Together that is a Delivery Topology. A simple notation and a few sentences describe a whole ecosystem, so it can be grasped as a whole, its challenges recognized, and a conversation about improving it can begin. Not team by team: improvements at the team level rarely stick. The units of an ecosystem depend on each other, so they have to be improved together, as one system. THE 2×2 · THE BOOK'S MAP Explaining Org Topologies: the two mandates, the four intelligences and the three topologies. Conversations with leaders about what the organization is designed for — and whether that fits the strategy. Comparing topologies and choosing an org goal. THE 4×4 · DETAILED MAPPING Placing every unit precisely — functional, multi-skill, end-to-end or expanding; tasks up to whole solution. Seeing small differences that matter, such as a multi-skill team that is still incomplete (CAPS-2) versus an end-to-end one (CAPS-3). Naming the current and target ecosystem in a shared, framework-free language. Lead with the 2×2. Reach for a specific archetype name when it genuinely sharpens the point — or when someone asks. ## Go see, with a map HOW TO MAP · GO SEE A topology is never assessed from a desk. Mapping and the Gemba, the place where the work actually happens, make each other better. Map without judgment, with curiosity, and together. Which parts of our organization contribute to creating value, and how do they interact to produce it — from idea to cash? Curiosity study Which business outcome are we mapping, and who has to work on it? What does the unit take on toward that outcome? What does it rely on, and from where? What does it produce, and for whom? How does work move — idea to cash? You can’t place a unit from an org chart. Watch the work — what comes in, what goes out, who waits for whom — then draw it, not the titles and layers. Once drawn, it shows where to look next: heavy dependency lines, hand-offs between incomplete units, the gap to the topology you need. The map can be reviewed, challenged and improved together, so leaders and workers co-own the discoveries that matter most. FROM THE BOOK · 10X ORG, “GO SEE WITH A MAP” Such a map doesn’t replace visiting the Gemba: mapping and Go See reinforce each other. … Once mapped, the value-creation terrain appears as a living structure—not a static org chart frozen in time—highlighting exactly where the improvement is most needed. ## Mapping Examples alexey-krivitsky MAPPING A REAL ORG CHANGE · CASE BY ALEXEY KRIVITSKY In 2021, Alexey Krivitsky helped Poster, a Ukraine-based SaaS company, rethink its organizational design. It reshaped its R&D from 12 narrow, component-oriented specialist teams into 6 versatile whole-product teams. Component teams with team-level managers, each with its own list of work, tied together by dependencies. One team of teams on a shared product backlog, with a product owner, product managers and engineering managers around it. Teams took ownership of feature adoption: a feature is done once a selected client actively uses it. When COVID-19 and later the full-scale invasion hit, Poster did not need to redesign under pressure. Read Alexey’s full case study → Mapping does not change the organization. But without mapping, change is blind. ## From the Community Real organizations, mapped by the people who worked with them. Each map comes with the context you need to read it and a link to the full case study. PropTech · Ukraine · LeSS DIM.RIA is one of Ukraine’s leading real estate marketplaces. When the full-scale invasion hit the market in 2022, it redesigned its structure, entirely remotely, around LeSS principles. The map shows where it started: a Resource Topology (Directing + Doing), with product managers handing work down to many small teams. The case study tells how it moved toward an adaptive organization. andrii-sabaiev Femtech · 350 people in product and engineering Flo Health, Europe’s first femtech unicorn, runs 20+ cross-functional product teams across mobile, AI, content, medical and commercial. Instead of dissolving its domain teams, Flo added a General Manager layer as an overlay, so each initiative has one owner while the domain teams keep their expertise. vitali-kukharchyk Industrial R&D · Spain FPED is a research unit at Eurecat, the Technology Centre of Catalonia, developing new manufacturing processes for plastic and composite materials. Heads of R&D lines moved from managing every detail towards Product Owner-like roles and delegated more to their teams. The map shows both states: the initial one in black, the current one in blue. raul-herranz High-tech manufacturing · IT · SAFe An Agile Release Train in the planning domain of one of Europe’s largest technology companies, with trains organized around business capabilities. A next-generation planning solution, Paradigm, became the occasion to redesign. The map shows the optimal design: a team of teams at PART-3. chiel-van-ewijk Government · digital services A product manager in a government organization leads three product owners and four teams. On paper they are agile; in practice everyone works on their own backlog, and when one team is blocked the others watch. The map shows the future design: teams aligned to whole product domains that build, validate and run the product end to end. koen-siegers Banking · the Netherlands Business Banking at de Volksbank moved from developers working on tasks to feature teams paired with the operations teams they serve. By 2023 most of its four dev teams were CAPS-2, incomplete teams working on customer journeys, and one reached CAPS-3, working end-to-end. The map shows that reality, with the vendor and IT still around the teams. roland-flemm ## Mapping Your Framework? compact frameworks See what a framework really optimizes for. “We are doing SAFe” says little about your design; mapping frameworks with Org Topologies shows their goals and their limits, so you can choose what fits. To framework mappings → driving FRAMEWORK MAPPINGS ## Free tools & more mapping ideas START MAPPING Essentials and empty maps to start mapping with your team, online. Open in Miroverse → “We are doing SAFe” says little about your design. See SAFe, LeSS, Team Topologies and more on the map. Study framework mapping → ## Three topologies, three goals STUDY COMMON TOPOLOGIES Each common topology combines different intelligences — specialization, flow, coordination, adaptive — and “shines” in a different environment. resource Resource Doing + Directing (specialization + coordination intelligences) Utilization & predictability Stable, process-driven environments Rigid when strategy shifts delivery Delivery Delivering + Directing (flow + coordination intelligences) Speed & flow within boundaries Known work that fits the team structure Cross-cutting work needs coordination adaptive Adaptive Driving (adaptive intelligence) Adaptability & learning Volatile, innovation-driven contexts Challenges existing control structures Explore which topology fits your strategy: a sample map of each, the four intelligences to click through, and how to go see your own organization with a map. 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