Transformation Is The Art Of De-compartmentalizing Knowledge

The hidden nature of interconnectedness

In traditional organizations, knowledge is compartmentalized into three strata: strategic, tactical, and operational. Each layer represents a deep focus, allowing experts to see details only within their domain.

We could say that organizational layers are encapsulated knowledge in roles: strategic (managers), tactical (leaders), and operational (teams).

This dynamic acts like a matrix, reinforcing the horizontal and vertical lines between areas. The problem isn't specializations, it's the lines. These lines are the invisible borders forcing hierarchies, ownership claims, and rigid rules that prevent knowledge from flowing across roles. That is the true effect of compartmentalization.

Regardless of whether the shape is a pyramid, a square, or a circle, the problem remains the same: people experience limited interconnectedness, and therefore limited movement.

This pattern is inherited from society. Social hierarchies are compartmentalized, they have a clear path up or down. Besides exceptional cases, the lower blocks rarely connect with the upper ones and vice versa.

Companies replicate this dynamic: employees assume that in order to move up, they must first pass through an intermediate compartment. The lines that form the hierarchy become the only apparent path.

From a global perspective, companies can be the exception because of their potential to create a space where this repetition of compartmentalization and its effects on people can be changed.

Specialization itself was never the problem. The real problem is the lack of integration.