The Next Next Common Sense
streaming and DVD businesses despite customer pushback, it was guided by the deeply held value of focus on the future—demonstrating true can- yon depth. In digital environments, values depth requires principles that translate to digital contexts, values visible in digital tools, and values em- bedded in algorithms and automation that reflect organizational priorities. The width of a canyon determines how much room exists for explo- ration and variation. Too narrow, and it constrains innovation; too wide, and it lacks sufficient guidance. Amazon demonstrates effective canyon width through its famous “two-pizza teams.” By establishing small, au- tonomous teams with end-to-end responsibility for specific customer experiences, Amazon created wide canyons where teams could explore multiple approaches while staying aligned with company-wide goals and principles. Creating appropriate width in digital environments involves modular architectures, experimentation platforms, decision rights clarity, and learning infrastructure that shares insights across distributed teams. Beyond basic width and depth, canyons have unique topology—con- tours that guide how energy flows through them. In organizational terms, these contours include feedback loops that provide rapid information about outcomes, decision thresholds that clarify when decisions require broader input, knowledge pathways that determine how information trav- els, and resource access that governs how people obtain what they need to move forward. In digital environments, these contours increasingly take the form of dashboards showing real-time performance, digital per- missions defining operational boundaries, workflow automation guiding processes without controlling every step, and recommendation engines suggesting without mandating. WW ahrenni nCga nS yi go nn ss aBnedc oPmr eev De na tmi o sn:
Even well-designed canyons can sometimes become obstacles rather than enablers. This typically happens when values harden into rules— when principles meant to guide behavior become rigid requirements. It
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