Organizational Antibodies

"When you say "organizational antibodies" do you mean ...?"

A team that is well-functioning often does so by acting differently from what the organization as a whole recommends. To a biological entity, "different" means "foreign/dangerous". So the organization goes into identity-preserving mode -- some equivalent of antibodies get issued -- to dismantle the foreign element (the well functioning team).

Ron Holiday first used the word OrganizationalAntibodies in one of our monthly roundtable meetings, and the word resonated with all of us. GeraldWeinberg told some of us that he occasionally would uncover a well-functioning team in the basement or somewhere, and they would make him promise not to tell anyone of their existence. So he identified with the concept as well (he quickly listed some of the antibody tactics).

There are many ways the OrganizationalAntibodies work: fire the key people ("Yes, you delivered the project on time, but you worked differently than we do here, so you'll have to go."), redistribute the key people ("You did so well, we'd like you to transfer this technique to that large, moribund project there"), chuck the project, slice the team up as BillBarnett says "like a flatworm experiment" and feed its parts to other teams (which doesn't work, because a well-functioning team is like a racehorse (TeamAsRacehorsePlantOrBacterialColony), not like a plant, and so grafting "cuttings" from it onto other teams doesn't transfer the desired properties).

-- AlistairCockburn

And is this a Pattern or an AntiPattern?