Concrete Action System: Map the Dependency Before Redesigning the Process

Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 256

The workflow changed. The dependency did not.

The Concrete Action System reveals the negotiated games, interdependencies, and zones of uncertainty that make formal processes work differently in practice

Premise

Organizations publish one architecture and operate through another. The chart shows authority, roles, and procedures; daily coordination also depends on who controls scarce expertise, who can delay a handoff, whose cooperation cannot be forced, and which exceptions are negotiated. Michel Crozier and Erhard Friedberg’s Concrete Action System treats that informal architecture as an organized pattern rather than noise.

For executive communication, messages are embedded in dependence. A copied email, delayed response, private pre-meeting, escalation, or silence can change another actor’s options. Before redesigning a channel or procedure, leaders need to know what uncertainty the exchange concerns and what each actor gains or loses from the current coordination game.

What the model is: Concrete Action System in Knowledge →