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When work is going well, it rarely feels managed.
Someone notices a delay and slows the pace. Another sees strain building and takes something off a plate. A question is asked early, before it turns into cleanup. The room adjusts without discussion. No one announces it — it just happens.
No one is waiting for permission. Coordination emerges through responsiveness.
This kind of alignment is easy to miss because Story doesn’t see it. There are no charts for it. No one is “the boss.” But the people inside it feel the difference immediately. Things move. Tension stays low. Energy circulates instead of draining away.
Now compare that with work organized through oversight.
Decisions move upward. Instructions come back down. By the time a signal reaches the place where adjustment is possible, it’s often late — or stripped of the context that made it matter.
So people compensate.
They document more than they speak. They wait. They protect themselves. Coordination shifts from response to compliance.
Effort goes into staying aligned with the system, not responding to what’s happening.
What’s often called “control” isn’t a preference — it’s a fallback.
When signals are unclear, feedback arrives late, and consequences feel distant, confidence drops. Responsiveness starts to feel unsafe. In that uncertainty, Story reaches for what culture has trained it to use: hierarchy, oversight, authority. Not because they align work better, but because they reduce felt risk when Life can’t see clearly enough to adjust.
But control doesn’t create alignment. It replaces responsiveness with procedure.
Life coordinates differently.
When coordination is working, a few conditions tend to be present.
Teams are small enough for people to see each other’s work. Feedback travels quickly. Adjustments happen before strain accumulates. Conversation carries more weight than reporting. Consequences stay close to effort.
These aren’t rules to adopt.
They’re signals that responsiveness has room to operate again.
None of this creates control.
It restores resonance.
(Photo by juan mendez: https://www.pexels.com/photo/four-men-sitting-in-front-of-table-near-glass-window-1578604/)