Organisational Dysfunctions: A Live Diagnosis Session with Trond Hjorteland

Most of us have a list of things that are broken at work. Fewer of us have a language for why they keep happening.

In this session, we will look at real organisational dysfunctions — yours — through the lens of Open Systems Theory, a body of research that has been explaining these patterns since the 1960s. Bring a dysfunction you have experienced or are living through right now. We will work through them together, looking for the structural cause underneath the symptom.

Trond Hjorteland will give a short introduction to Open Systems Theory and the design principles that explain why the same dysfunctions appear across different organisations, industries, and decades. Then we open the floor.

This session is connected to the book Organisational Dysfunctions: Open Systems Theory Explains, launching on 3 July 2026.