The language of organisations that think clearly

An organisation whose roles, processes and data are explicit enough for artificial intelligence to produce reliable answers and real gains. AI does not invent clarity: it amplifies what exists.

The framework that defines who decides what about artificial intelligence in an organisation: authorised uses, named responsibilities, risk control and regulatory compliance, notably with the European AI Act.

An organisation's real level of readiness to draw value from artificial intelligence: the quality of its data, the skills of its teams, its governance, and above all the clarity of its processes and roles.

An organisation able to adjust its priorities, teams and processes quickly to changes in its market. It applies agile principles at company scale: short cycles, autonomous teams, decisions as close to the field as possible.

An organisation that integrates artificial intelligence into its processes to extend its teams' capabilities — analysis, writing, coordination — without replacing them. The augmentation applies to the work itself, not just the tools.

An organisational model that favours continuous adaptation, short cycles and team autonomy over rigid planning, in order to respond quickly to changes in the market and in customer needs.

An adaptive organisation is designed to adjust its structure, roles and priorities continuously to changes in its environment, instead of proceeding through exceptional reorganisations years apart.

A structured list of the topics to be covered in a meeting, drawn up and circulated beforehand. The agenda usually states the objective of each item, the time allotted and the person who owns it.

A mode of collaboration in which contributions do not require participants to be present at the same time: each person processes information and produces at their own pace, relying on persistent written media.

The process by which an organisation adopts agile principles at scale - short iterations, autonomous teams, priority on delivered value - beyond the IT teams where these methods were born.

An approach to leadership centred on leading change in the face of problems with no known solution: the leader helps the collective confront the problem and learn, rather than imposing a ready-made answer.

Exchanges that do not require the simultaneous presence of the parties: the message is processed by its recipient at a time of their choosing. Email, discussion threads and commented documents belong to it.

The set of rules, roles and controls framing the use of artificial intelligence in an organisation: authorised use cases, data protection, human oversight, traceability of decisions and regulatory compliance.

Authority is the recognised power to take decisions and have them applied within a given scope. It differs from de facto power by its legitimacy: it is accepted by those over whom it is exercised.

The capacity of an individual or a team to organise their work, decide and act without systematic sign-off from the hierarchy, within a clearly defined frame of objectives, rules and responsibilities.

The execution of tasks or processes by technical systems without direct human intervention. In companies, it targets repetitive, codifiable operations in order to reduce delays, errors and low-value work.

Conversational software based on artificial intelligence that responds to requests in natural language: finding information, drafting text, summarising a document or explaining a subject. It works on demand, under the user's control.

A decision by which a person or body settles between several competing options or positions, generally after hearing the parties. In organisations, it comes into play when the usual decision-making mechanisms have failed to produce an outcome.

A decision-making mechanism in which the decision-maker, before deciding, seeks the advice of those affected and of experts on the subject. They remain solely responsible for the final decision, but commit to genuinely considering the advice received.

Algorithmic governance refers to delegating decisions or operating rules to algorithmic systems. It raises questions of transparency, accountability and human control over automated decisions.

Agile governance applies the principles of agile management to steering the organisation: short decision cycles, continuous prioritisation, transparent trade-offs and regular adjustment of rules based on feedback from the ground.

Adaptive governance is a mode of steering designed to evolve with its environment: rules, roles and structures are regularly revised on the basis of signals from the ground rather than fixed in a definitive frame.

The set of processes and tools that control who can access which resources of an information system, with which rights and for how long: granting, modifying, reviewing and revoking entitlements.

An organisation that designs its processes, its roles and its information management starting from the capabilities of artificial intelligence, rather than adding AI to existing ways of working.

An artificial intelligence program able to perceive an environment, reason about an objective and execute actions with partial autonomy. An AI agent chains several steps — analysis, decision, action — without human instruction at each one.

A software system able to carry out a mission end to end without human intervention at every step: it plans, executes, evaluates and adjusts its actions. Its autonomy remains bounded by objectives and limits defined upstream.

A decision-making mechanism in which anyone can decide within their own scope, provided they have sought the advice of the people affected and of those with expertise on the subject.

The process by which a system adjusts how it operates or how it is structured in response to a change in its environment. In organisations, adaptation happens through the revision of roles, processes and priorities as the context evolves.

The capacity of an organisation, a team or a person to change how it operates in the face of a shift in context — market, technology, workforce — without losing its coherence or its effectiveness.

A concrete task arising from a meeting, a decision or a plan, entrusted to an identified owner with a defined deadline. Tracking action items determines an organisation's capacity to turn its intentions into results.

An autopoietic system creates itself: it is in perpetual renewal and its regeneration is autonomous.

Accountability is the ability to take responsibility for a specific task.

Antifragile describes an organism, person, idea, or system that improves when it is disrupted.

The term Agile originates from a project-focused software development methodology.

The backlog is the ordered list of all the work envisaged on a product or project: features, fixes, improvements. Continuously prioritised, it is the single source of the team's upcoming work.

Belonging is the feeling of being accepted, recognised and integrated within a work collective. It feeds engagement and cooperation, and is one of the fundamental psychological needs identified by work psychology.

Beyond Budgeting holds that forecasts are inherently biased, because any fixed projection system instantly renders forecasts obsolete.

A decision taken by a group rather than by a single person, according to an explicit rule: consensus, consent, vote or solicited advice. It aims to mobilise the group's intelligence and to strengthen commitment to the decision taken.

A decision-making framework developed by Dave Snowden, which distinguishes several types of situations — clear, complicated, complex, chaotic — and the appropriate mode of response for each. The Welsh word means "habitat".

Corporate culture refers to the set of values, beliefs, rituals and behaviours shared by the members of an organisation. It shapes how decisions are made, how teams cooperate and how the company presents itself to the outside world.

An artificial intelligence assistant embedded in work tools, which suggests, completes or drafts alongside the user. The copilot proposes; the human keeps the final decision and the responsibility for the result.

A way of organising in which a collective produces a shared output without a strict division of tasks: everyone contributes to, reviews and amends the work in a shared space, according to explicit conventions.

The arrangement of tasks, resources and actors so that individual contributions come together into a coherent result. It relies on hierarchy, standardisation or mutual adjustment between peers.

The voluntary participation of several actors in a shared objective, each keeping their own tasks and responsibility. It differs from collaboration, where the production and the responsibility for the result are shared.

The situation of an organisation whose practices respect the laws, regulations, standards and commitments that apply to it. The compliance function identifies these requirements, monitors their application and documents the evidence.

The character of a system whose many interacting elements produce behaviours that are hard to predict and irreducible to simple rules. Complexity differs from complication: an engine is complicated, an organisation is complex.

Competencies are the combination of knowledge, practical skills and behaviours that a person mobilises to carry out a professional activity in a given situation. They are acquired through training and experience.

The deliberate evolution of the values, behaviours and implicit norms that govern the way of working in an organisation. It targets what the formal structure does not dictate: how people decide, cooperate and speak up.

A set of interacting elements whose overall behaviour cannot be deduced from individual behaviours. Markets, ecosystems and organisations are complex systems: they can be influenced, rarely fully controlled.

A mode of leadership founded on co-construction: the leader brings together actors with different expertise and interests, within the organisation or across organisations, without relying on hierarchical authority.

A mode of communication in which information is built and circulates through exchanges between peers — publishing, commenting, enriching — rather than through the top-down broadcast of approved messages alone.

The joint work of actors from different teams, professions or departments, outside the usual hierarchical lines, around a project or process that cuts across the organisation.

The joint work of several people pursuing a common objective and sharing responsibility for the result. It requires an explicit goal, known rules of interaction and a shared information space.

The capacity of a group to produce ideas, decisions or solutions of a higher quality than any of its members would have achieved alone, thanks to the diversity and quality of interactions.

An innovation approach that deliberately involves multiple actors — employees from different functions, customers, partners — in generating, selecting and developing new ideas, rather than reserving innovation for a dedicated function.

A term borrowed from aviation for a consolidated view of the essential indicators of an organisation, a team or a project. A cockpit gathers in one place the data needed for steering and decision-making.

A joint creative process that involves in the design of a product or service actors usually external to it: customers, users, partners or employees from other professions.

An approach that involves the stakeholders of a project or decision from its conception onwards: the result is developed jointly, through iterations, rather than submitted for comment once the orientations have been settled.

The basic unit of sociocratic or holacratic organisations: a semi-autonomous team with a purpose, a defined scope and explicit roles, which organises its own workings within the limits of its mandate.

A method for translating strategic objectives into team objectives, then individual ones, level by level. Each tier takes the objectives of the level above and translates them into its own scope of responsibility.

A career path is the professional development trajectory an organisation makes possible and legible: levels, bridges between professions and progression criteria, on a managerial track or an expert track.

Collaborative AI refers to the integration of artificial intelligence into collective work: it assists teams in their exchanges, meetings and projects, complementing people rather than replacing them.

Corporate governance refers to the set of rules, bodies and practices that frame the direction and control of a company, distributing rights and responsibilities among shareholders, executives and stakeholders.

Collaborative governance organises decision-making among several actors — teams, functions or organisations — around common objectives, through deliberation and mutual commitment rather than hierarchical authority alone.

Continuous feedback is the practice of giving and receiving regular, immediate feedback on work throughout the year, rather than concentrating it in an annual appraisal meeting.

The company feed, or internal news feed, is a chronological stream that aggregates an organisation's posts, announcements and conversations. Each employee consumes the information as it flows, on the model of social networks.

An approach that continually improves an organisation's processes, products and practices through a succession of small incremental changes, measured and made permanent, rather than through occasional large-scale transformations.

The role of a circle rep is to carry the voice of their circle within the parent circle.

The role of a Circle Lead is to enable their circle to make progress toward its purpose.

Cybernetics is the study of the interactions within a system and of the triggers behind these actions.

Choosing by consent means that you can make a decision as long as no objection is raised.

Choosing by consensus means that you can only make a decision once everyone supports the proposal.

The set of methods that move an organisation from one state to another while earning teams' genuine buy-in: communication, training, internal relays, deployment rhythm and handling of resistance.

An organisation whose teams work from several sites, remotely or from home, without a single central location. It runs on explicit processes, shared digital tools and mostly asynchronous communication.

An organisation in which decision-making power is transferred from the top to local units or teams, each with real autonomy within its scope. The centre retains a role of framing and coherence.

A digital representation of an organisation's structure, updated continuously, that shows roles, teams and responsibilities as they actually exist, rather than a frozen snapshot of reporting lines.

An exclusive scope of authority entrusted to a role or a circle: what it alone may control or modify. Any intervention by a third party within this scope requires its prior agreement.

Diversity refers to the variety of profiles present in an organisation: origins, genders, ages, backgrounds, education, cognitive styles. It becomes a collective resource when the organisation knows how to draw complementary perspectives from it.

The digital workplace refers to the integrated set of digital tools through which employees communicate, collaborate and access information. It extends the intranet to cover the whole work experience.

A dependency is an ordering relationship between two tasks or projects: one can only start or finish depending on the other. Identifying dependencies is essential for sequencing work and anticipating blockages.

The formal transfer of decision-making power or responsibility from one person to another. The delegator remains accountable for the overall result; the delegate decides and acts within the scope entrusted to them.

A way of organising in which decision-making power is spread across teams and roles, as close as possible to the information and the action, rather than concentrated at the top of the hierarchy. Each decision-making scope is defined explicitly.

A choice settled between several options, which commits an organisation or a team to a given direction. A quality decision specifies its subject, its owner, its date and how it will be implemented.

A short daily meeting — often around fifteen minutes, standing up — during which a team synchronises its work: what has been done, what is planned, what is blocking.

A mode of coordination without a single decision-making centre: the work is articulated through local adjustments between actors, made possible by shared rules and transparent, accessible information.

The integration of digital technologies across all of an organisation's activities, transforming its processes, ways of working and customer relationships. It goes beyond tooling: it changes how the organisation creates value.

A structured set of indicators presenting the state of an activity in a concise, regular way. The dashboard helps leaders and teams track results, detect deviations and decide on corrective actions.

A conception of leadership as a property of the collective rather than of an individual: the leadership function is spread across several people according to expertise, roles and situations.

The capacity of a state, an organisation or an individual to control its data, infrastructure and digital technologies, without unchosen dependence on external actors or jurisdictions.

All the technical and organisational measures intended to protect data against unauthorised access, alteration, loss or destruction. It rests on three classic properties: confidentiality, integrity and availability.

Delegated authority is decision-making power transferred by its holder to another role or level, within a defined scope and limits. The delegatee decides without prior sign-off; the delegator remains guarantor of the frame.

The decision-making process is the sequence of steps by which an organisation moves from a question to a decision: framing, examining the options, choosing according to an explicit rule — authority, consent, consensus or vote — then follow-up.

Dynamic governance, another name for sociocracy, organises consent decision-making within interlinked semi-autonomous circles, and provides for the continuous revision of rules as experience tests them.

Distributed governance spreads decision-making authority across clearly defined roles and teams, rather than concentrating it at the top of the hierarchy. Each role decides within its explicit scope.

The set of rules that determine who decides what in an organisation: distribution of decision-making powers, bodies, processes and escalation mechanisms. It makes explicit a mechanism that often remains implicit.

The set of methods and arrangements organising the lifecycle of documents: creation, filing, versions, distribution, archiving. It guarantees information that is accessible, reliable and up to date.

An organisation whose activities, teams and decision-making authority are spread across several sites, entities or roles, with no single centre of command. The term also refers to companies operating mostly remotely.

Design thinking is a creative strategy used to solve problems. It begins with empathy for the end user, followed by ideation, prototyping and testing.

Authority is distributed in an organisation when several people are able to make decisions.

The body that aligns all of a company's projects and programmes with its strategy, above unit-level project offices: it arbitrates priorities and resources, sets steering standards and gives leadership a consolidated view of execution.

Draft European cybersecurity certification scheme for cloud services (European Union Cybersecurity Certification Scheme for Cloud Services), developed under the European Cybersecurity Act.

The passing of a topic, problem or decision to a higher level of responsibility when the initial level cannot settle it: scope exceeded, persistent disagreement, high risk or a resource trade-off to be arbitrated.

An epic is a body of work too large to be completed in a single iteration, grouping several user stories that serve the same objective. It acts as an intermediate unit between the roadmap and the detailed backlog.

The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) is a management system for SMEs designed by Gino Wickman. It structures the company around six components — vision, people, data, issues, process, traction — and a small set of simple, standardised tools.

Engagement refers to the degree of an employee's intellectual and emotional involvement in their work and their organisation. It shows in the energy invested, the initiative taken and the willingness to contribute beyond the strict scope of the job.

Employee experience refers to the sum of perceptions an employee accumulates through their interactions with their organisation, from recruitment to departure. It conditions engagement, retention and employer attractiveness.

The appearance, at the level of a system, of properties or behaviours that none of its elements possesses in isolation. An organisation's culture or a market's dynamics are emergent phenomena: no one decides them, everyone produces them.

A set of interdependent actors — organisations, individuals, resources — interacting within a shared environment. By analogy with ecology, the term refers in management to a network of partners, customers and suppliers whose evolutions condition one another.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive, understand and regulate one's own emotions and those of others. It shapes the quality of working relationships, conflict management and the practice of management.

The employee portal is the single entry page of a digital workplace. It centralises access to news, applications, documents and internal services, and directs each employee to the resources they need.

A method of testing a hypothesis under controlled, limited conditions before generalising a decision. Applied to organisations, it substitutes proof by trial for conviction or argument from authority.

Employee retention is an organisation's ability to keep its talent and prevent them from leaving.

A management approach that increases employees' capacity to act by transferring authority, information and responsibilities to them. It aims to bring decisions closer to the field and to strengthen engagement and responsiveness.

Employee engagement measures how motivated employees are to contribute to the success of their team and their organisation. Low engagement generally leads to poor performance.

The set of practices for checking the progress of actions, objectives or decisions over time: regular check-ins, indicators, reminders and adjustments. Follow-up turns commitments made into actual results.

A mechanism by which the result of an action comes back to influence the system that produced it. Negative feedback stabilises the system; positive feedback amplifies deviations. It is the basic mechanism of regulation and learning.

The working environment of tomorrow: the combination of physical places, digital tools and management practices that will frame how teams work in the years ahead.

The set of technological, organisational and social transformations reshaping ways of working, the skills required and the relationship between organisations and the people who contribute to them.

The practice of guiding a group towards a shared objective by structuring the discussion: framing the time, distributing speaking turns, decision formats. The facilitator remains neutral on the content.

A flat organisation has few or no intermediate levels of management.

Feedback is essential to the growth and development of the organisation. It enables employees to improve their performance, which benefits both the individual and the organisation.

A facilitator is a person who ensures that meetings are inclusive and productive.

A governance framework is the structured set of rules, roles, bodies and processes that define how an organisation takes its decisions, distributes authority and controls how it is applied.

General Data Protection Regulation: the European Union regulation that governs the processing of personal data. Applicable since May 2018, it grants rights to individuals and imposes obligations on organisations that process their data.

A governance process is the formalised procedure by which an organisation creates, amends or removes its rules, roles and policies — as distinct from operational processes, which execute the work.

The Gantt chart is a graphical representation of a project schedule: each task appears as a horizontal bar positioned in time, with its dependencies and milestones. It is named after the engineer Henry Gantt.

A governance meeting is used to discuss decisions that impact the roles or policies of the organisation.

Governance is the set of processes used by leaders to manage a group of people.

Getting Things Done (GTD) is a productivity management system designed to organise the surrounding chaos.

A way of organising work that alternates on-site presence and remote work, at a rhythm set by the employer, the team or the employee. Widespread since 2020, it combines the two modes.

A way of working in which humans and artificial intelligence systems divide tasks according to their respective strengths: volume, speed and repetition to the machine; judgement, context and responsibility to the human.

HR, short for human resources, refers to the company function responsible for managing and developing human capital: recruitment, compensation, training, employee relations, career management and compliance with labour law.

The capacity of a system to maintain its internal equilibrium despite variations in its environment, through regulation mechanisms. Applied to organisations, it explains their stability — and their spontaneous resistance to change.

Horizontal governance organises decision-making among peers, with few or no intermediate hierarchical levels. Coordination rests on explicit rules, defined roles and mutual accountability rather than supervision.

An organisational model based on a vertical chain of command: each employee reports to a single superior, and both authority and information travel along the levels of the pyramid.

Holacracy is a collaborative governance model that positions itself as an alternative to the traditional hierarchical pyramid model.

The integrated objection is a principle of consent decision-making: a reasoned objection does not block a proposal, it serves to amend it until it no longer causes foreseeable harm to the organisation.

An automated workflow that incorporates artificial intelligence to handle steps requiring analysis or decision: sorting, prioritisation, summarising, routing. It combines fixed rules with algorithmic judgement, under human control at critical steps.

Internal mobility is an employee's move to a different position, occupation or entity within the same organisation. It can be vertical, towards greater responsibility, or horizontal, towards other functions.

The set of actions and channels through which an organisation informs its employees, circulates information and maintains a shared understanding of its strategy, its decisions and its collective life.

An international standard that specifies the requirements for an information security management system (ISMS). It allows an organisation to have its approach to protecting information certified by an accredited body.

An approach whereby an employee designs and develops an innovative project within their company, with its resources and support, while keeping their status as an employee.

An intranet is a private network or site, reserved for the members of an organisation, that centralises internal information: news, reference documents, procedures and employee services. It has historically been the foundation of digital internal communication.

An initiative is a set of actions or projects undertaken to advance a strategic objective. In OKR practice, it names the concrete work carried out to influence the measured key results.

Quantified data used to track the state or progress of an activity against an objective. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are those judged most representative of the success of an organisation or team.

Inclusion refers to the set of practices that guarantee every member of an organisation, whatever their characteristics, equitable access to opportunities, decisions and information, and the ability to contribute fully.

A consent-based decision process makes it possible to validate a decision as soon as no one has any objections.

The practice of making one's knowledge, methods and lessons learned accessible to the other members of an organisation, rather than keeping them at the individual level.

The KGI (Key Goal Indicator) measures the achievement of the final outcome an organisation or process aims for: revenue, market share, satisfaction. It differs from the KPI, which tracks performance along the way.

The practice of collecting, formalising and preserving the knowledge and lessons learned produced by day-to-day activity, so as to make them reusable by other people and at other times.

Kanban is a visual method of organising work that divides the workflow into three main categories - to do, in progress, done - in order to improve processes continuously.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are measurable values set to evaluate the success of a project or objective.

An organisational model in which employees have broad autonomy to decide how they work, with the controlling hierarchy reduced in favour of trust and accountability. The term was popularised by Isaac Getz.

A learning organisation systematically develops its members' capacity to learn together: it captures the lessons of experience, shares them and turns them into improvements to its practices and structure.

An innovation approach that applies lean principles to the development of new products or services: testing hypotheses quickly with users, at low cost, to eliminate ideas without value early.

Lateral communication refers to exchanges of information between departments, teams or functions at the same level, without going through the chain of command. It facilitates project coordination and the circulation of knowledge across the organisation.

The capacity to orient and mobilise a collective towards a common goal, through influence rather than formal authority alone. Leadership differs from management, which organises and coordinates what already exists.

The living organisation refers to a conception of the company as an organism able to learn, adapt and regenerate itself, rather than as a machine executing fixed procedures.

Lean Startup is a market research method based on testing, measuring and iterating from feedback.

Lean Management is a methodology that aims to optimise production by minimising waste.

LeSS is a project management framework for software development. It complements the Scrum methodology by facilitating the coordination of multiple Scrum teams working on a single product.

Describes a system in which several artificial intelligence agents cooperate, coordinate or divide tasks to reach a common goal. Each agent handles part of the problem, often with a specialised role.

Motivation is the set of forces that drive a person to act and to persevere in their work. It can be intrinsic, tied to the interest of the task, or extrinsic, tied to external rewards.

The operational purpose of an organisation or team: what it accomplishes, for whom and why. It guides priorities and serves as a reference for everyday decisions.

A formal delegation of authority entrusted to a person, role or team: what they are empowered to decide, over what scope, within what limits and for what duration.

A managerial posture in which the manager develops employees' skills and autonomy through questioning, listening and feedback, rather than through prescription and task control.

A document recording the course of a meeting: topics covered, key exchanges, decisions taken and actions agreed, with their owners and deadlines. It forms the written memory of collective work.

A milestone is a dated reference point in the course of a project, marking a significant event: end of a phase, delivery, decision. Of zero duration, it serves to track progress and support stage-gate reviews.

A moment of collective work bringing several people together, in person or remotely, around a defined objective: to inform, coordinate, decide or produce. Its quality depends on rigorous preparation, facilitation and follow-up.

Modern governance brings together contemporary approaches to steering organisations that favour transparency, distributed authority and continuous adaptation, breaking with top-down hierarchy alone.

A structure in which employees report simultaneously to two management lines, usually a functional line (discipline) and an operational line (project, product or market). It aims to combine expertise with cross-functionality.

Management 3.0 emphasizes collaboration between employees, managers and leaders through dialogue and sharing.

Management consists of coordinating people, tasks and information to achieve specific objectives that are important to the organisation.

The North Star Metric is the single indicator a company chooses as the best reflection of the value delivered to its customers, and around which it aligns the efforts of all its teams.

The single course that guides an organisation: an ambition or reference metric to which every team can connect its priorities.

Network governance coordinates autonomous units — teams, entities or organisations — through cooperative ties, common rules and information exchange, rather than a single hierarchical chain.

A form of organisation made up of autonomous units linked by cooperative relationships rather than a chain of command. Coordination happens through information flows and interfaces, not vertical control.

New Work redistributes individuals' time into three thirds: traditional work, intelligent or self-sufficient production, and personal fulfilment.

The degree to which an organisation achieves its goals with the resources it has: decisions taken quickly and in the right place, little internal friction, and teams' energy focused on value rather than coordination.

An organisation's capacity to adjust its priorities, decisions and structure quickly in the face of change, without losing coherence. Its structural condition: clear roles and decisions taken close to the ground.

A systematic approach to improving the performance of operations: quality, lead times, costs and experience, carried by a culture of continuous improvement rather than one-off initiatives.

The process by which an organisation continuously adjusts its structure, roles and practices as its context changes, through small successive adaptations rather than large periodic reorganisations.

The continuous approach that strengthens an organisation's capacity to evolve: culture, skills, collaboration practices and collective learning. Where organisation design deals with structure, development deals with the living part.

The discipline of deliberately designing an organisation's structure, roles, responsibilities, decision paths and coordination mechanisms, so that it serves the strategy rather than history or habit.

An organisation is a structured, lasting collective of people who coordinate their activities to reach common goals, by means of established roles, rules and processes.

A graphical representation of an organisation's structure: it depicts the units, positions or roles, and the hierarchical or functional links that connect them.

In computing, the base software that runs a machine. Applied by analogy to an organisation, the term refers to the coherent set of structures, decision rules, processes and rituals on which its day-to-day functioning rests.

The way an organisation arranges its processes, structure, skills, governance and tools to deliver its value proposition day to day.

A regular individual meeting between a manager and a member of their team. It serves to review the work, priorities and the person's development.

Onboarding is the structured process of welcoming a new employee: access to tools, transmission of context, key introductions and a progressive rise to autonomy over the first weeks or months.

Offboarding is the organised process of an employee's departure: transferring knowledge and responsibilities, returning access rights and equipment, holding an exit interview and maintaining a good relationship with the former employee.

Organisational culture covers the shared values, norms and representations that structure how an organisation works, whether it is a company, a public body or an association. It shapes collective behaviour beyond the formal rules.

A deep, deliberate change to an organisation's structure, processes, roles or culture, undertaken to adapt how it works to a new strategy, a new context or new technologies.

The body of knowledge, decisions and experience accumulated by an organisation and available for action. It resides in documents and systems, but also in routines and people.

An organisational constitution is the founding document that sets the rules of power in an organisation: how roles are created, how decisions are made and how the rules themselves can change.

An organisational tension is the perceived gap between what is and what could be in how an organisation works. Far from being a conflict, it is treated as the signal that triggers improvement of the structure.

The set of communication processes that make an organisation work: internal and external flows, downward, upward and lateral. It is also an academic field that studies these processes.

The way an organisation distributes work, roles, authority and decision paths among its members, then coordinates the whole. It determines who does what, who decides what and how information flows.

An innovation strategy whereby an organisation draws on external ideas, technologies and skills, and lets its own innovations flow outward, rather than developing everything in-house.

The introduction of new organisational methods into a company's practices, its organisation of work or its external relations. It concerns structures and processes, not directly products or technologies.

The formalisation of a role within the structure: its purpose, its accountabilities, its possible domain and its limits of authority. It is the elementary unit of role-based organisations.

Organisational AI refers to the application of artificial intelligence to the workings of the organisation itself: structuring and exploiting internal knowledge, decision support, process automation and coordination between teams.

An organisational policy is a written rule that frames or authorises action in a given domain — remote work, spending, security, tool usage — and applies to all the organisation's members concerned.

An organisation's capacity to reach its objectives while using its resources efficiently. It is assessed across several dimensions: economic results, quality of execution, customer and employee satisfaction, capacity to adapt.

The way an organisation designs and evolves its structure, roles and ways of working to serve its business strategy. It treats the organisation as a performance lever, not as a backdrop.

The way an organisation structures its roles, its decisions and its information flow to produce value. It answers three questions: who does what, who decides what and how information flows.

The state of an organisation in which anyone can see who holds which role, who decides what and how work flows, without having to ask. It depends on what is made explicit, not on size or management model.

Resilient organisations foster proactivity to prevent risks arising from internal and external changes.

The OKR (Objectives and Key Results) methodology makes it possible to align individual, team and organisational objectives.

The structured representation of how work flows through an organisation: who does what, in what order, with which decisions, rules and tools. The foundation of any improvement or automation.

Performance appraisal is the process by which an organisation assesses an employee's performance, skills and progression, classically in a periodic review meeting. It underpins decisions on pay, mobility and development.

The project life cycle is the sequence of phases that structure a project, from initial framing to closure: definition, planning, execution, monitoring, closure. Each phase has its deliverables and its exit criteria.

The quantified assessment of the results of an organisation, team or process against previously defined objectives. It rests on indicators chosen to reflect progress towards those objectives faithfully.

A project is a temporary endeavour, with a beginning and an end, undertaken to produce a unique result: a product, a service or a change. It differs from routine operations in being bounded and singular.

Participatory governance involves an organisation's members in the decisions that affect them, through consultation, co-construction or co-decision, without necessarily transferring final authority away from leadership.

A programme is a set of related projects and activities, managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits that separate management would not allow. It serves a strategic aim over a longer horizon than a project.

Prioritisation consists of ranking tasks, projects or requests by their relative importance, so as to allocate limited time and resources to what produces the most value. It relies on explicit, shared criteria.

The PMO (Project Management Office) is the entity responsible for standardising an organisation's project management practices, consolidating portfolio tracking and supporting project managers.

Planning consists of organising over time the tasks, resources and deadlines needed to reach an objective. It produces a reference plan then used to track progress and make trade-offs.

Project management brings together the methods and practices for steering a project from framing to closure: defining objectives, planning tasks, allocating resources and controlling time, cost and risk.

Portfolio management consists of selecting, prioritising and steering all of an organisation's projects and programmes as a coherent whole, so as to allocate resources to the initiatives most aligned with the strategy.

Rights granted to a user or group over a digital resource: to view, edit, share or administer. Permissions translate the access policy defined by the organisation into technical rules.

People operations refers to an approach to the HR function centred on data, processes and employee experience, treating people management with the rigour of operations.

A psychologically safe environment allows individuals to be themselves without fear.

A purpose is an inspiring motivation that explains why and how we act.

The Quaker method of governance rests on a shared purpose, consensus and the absence of hierarchy.

A coherent set of responsibilities entrusted to a person to serve a defined purpose. The role is distinct from the person who holds it and from the job position: one person can hold several roles, and a role can change holders.

A roadmap is a concise, time-based representation of the major stages of a product, project or strategy. It communicates direction and priorities rather than the detail of tasks.

A team meeting held at regular intervals to review the period just ended: what worked well, what worked less well, and the improvements to undertake. It is a pillar of continuous improvement.

The obligation to answer for a mission, a decision or a result before the collective. In an organisation, responsibility is effective when it is explicitly assigned to a role and known to all.

Recognition refers to all the signals by which an organisation acknowledges the value of work and people: thanks, positive feedback, celebrating successes, pay, promotion. It feeds engagement and health at work.

Role-based governance attaches authority to explicit roles — defined by a purpose, a domain and accountabilities — rather than to people or hierarchical positions.

Role authority is the decision-making power attached to an explicit role rather than to a person: the role-holder decides within the role's domain without hierarchical authorisation, as long as they respect the policies in force.

The explicit definition of what each role owns in an organisation: its scope, its accountabilities and its decision authority. A role is not a job: one person can hold several roles, precise and evolving.

Responsive organisations adapt quickly to unexpected obstacles and opportunities.

The moment an organisation extends artificial intelligence from a few successful pilots to all of its teams and processes, with governance and measurement worthy of the name.

The discipline that turns a strategy into results: cascaded objectives, named responsibilities, a regular review rhythm and decisions made when reality pushes back.

Strategic objectives are the medium- and long-term goals an organisation sets itself to deliver its strategy. They guide the allocation of resources and cascade into measurable operational objectives for teams.

A real-time mode of collaboration: participants are present at the same time, on site or remotely, and interact without delay, as in a meeting, a workshop or a call.

The alignment over time of actions, decisions and information between several actors, generally through regular check-ins. It ensures that everyone has the same picture of the situation.

An approach to leadership that treats the organisation as a living system: the leader acts on structures, interactions and feedback loops rather than on individual behaviour alone.

A model according to which there is no universal leadership style: the manager adjusts their degree of direction and support to each employee's level of autonomy and competence, on each task.

A mode of exercising leadership in which the leadership function is carried collectively by the members of a team, who divide it among themselves or take it in turns as needs dictate.

Real-time exchanges in which the participants are present simultaneously and respond without delay: face-to-face conversation, call, video conference or meeting. The richest mode, but the most expensive in calendar time.

The sprint is a fixed-length iteration, generally one to four weeks, during which an agile team completes a defined set of work and produces a usable increment. The term comes from the Scrum framework.

A circle created within a parent circle to take charge of part of its purpose. It has its own governance while remaining linked to the parent circle through explicit links.

A shared governance framework freely distributed since 2015 by James Priest and Bernhard Bockelbrink. It offers a set of modular "patterns": consent decision-making, circles, election without candidates, continuous improvement.

The social intranet is an intranet enriched with features from social networks: profiles, news feeds, comments, communities. It combines top-down communication with participatory exchanges between employees.

The skill matrix, or competency matrix, is a table cross-referencing team members and required skills, with each person's level of proficiency. It reveals strengths, dependencies and training needs.

A leadership model that inverts the pyramid: the leader places themselves at the service of their teams, developing their autonomy and removing obstacles, rather than commanding them.

A set of security requirements established by ANSSI to qualify cloud computing service providers. SecNumCloud qualification attests to a high level of security, verified through an in-depth assessment.

A document formalising an organisation's medium-term ambitions — usually three to five years — together with the objectives, resources and timetable chosen to achieve them. It serves as a common reference for all teams.

The process by which an organisation turns its strategy into concrete results: translating priorities into objectives, allocating resources, tracking progress and adjusting regularly. It connects leadership's vision to the daily work of teams.

The ongoing process of monitoring and adjusting an organisation's strategy. Strategic steering relies on objectives, indicators and review rituals to check that execution stays true to the ambitions set.

An approach that treats an organisation or a problem as a system: a set of interacting elements whose overall behaviour cannot be reduced to the sum of its parts. It focuses on relationships and feedback loops.

The state in which an organisation's objectives, structures and daily work pull in the same direction as its strategy. It is built through an explicit cascade, from company objectives to named roles.

A way of organising in which decision authority is distributed across explicit roles rather than concentrated in the management line alone. Decisions are taken close to the work, within a written frame anyone can consult.

Systems theory studies how each part of a system contributes to forming a complex whole.

Spiral Dynamics is a psychological model that explains individual behaviours within organisations.

Sociocracy is a collaborative governance model that offers an alternative to traditional hierarchy.

Self-organised teams get their work done without authoritarian supervision.

In a holacratic or sociocratic organisation, each circle elects a secretary responsible for taking notes and publishing the minutes.

A scrum master helps a Scrum team apply the Scrum methodology and the defined processes.

The Scrum method is an empirical, dynamic, and participatory approach to project management.

SAFe is a project management methodology for software development that accelerates decision-making while reducing risk.

Self-organisation is the idea that systems can emerge and evolve without explicit external intervention.

The systemic approach to management views the organisation as the sum of its internal interactions.

The social-organic approach focuses on an organisation's impact and on collective well-being.

Self-actualisation is the idea that humans are motivated by a fundamental desire to fully realise their potential.

The dedicated team that steers an organisation's transformation initiatives: it owns the portfolio of workstreams, arbitrates priorities, orchestrates change management and measures progress. Unlike a project office, it evolves the operating model.

An organisational model theorised by Frédéric Laloux, corresponding to the most advanced stage of his scale of organisational models. The teal organisation rests on self-management, wholeness at work and an evolutionary purpose.

Talent development refers to all the mechanisms through which an organisation grows its employees' skills and careers: training, mentoring, mobility, stretch assignments and succession plans.

Transparency refers to the open, accessible sharing of information within an organisation: decisions, objectives, results, rules. It reduces information asymmetries and strengthens trust and team accountability.

A leadership style that mobilises teams by giving meaning: the leader carries a vision, stimulates employees intellectually and develops their potential, beyond the simple exchange of contribution for reward.

Trust is the willingness to make oneself vulnerable to the actions of another, on the assumption that they will act with competence, benevolence and integrity. In an organisation, it conditions cooperation, delegation and the circulation of information.

A change management approach developed by Otto Scharmer, a researcher at MIT. It describes a U-shaped process: observe, let a deeper intention emerge, then prototype and deploy.

A model described by Frederic Laloux, founded on self-management, wholeness and evolutionary purpose, breaking with the classic pyramid hierarchy. The French term is "organisation opale".

The flow of information from leadership to employees along the hierarchical line: orientations, decisions, instructions. The historical model of corporate communication, exposed to message loss along the way.

The structured description of how an organisation will need to operate tomorrow to execute its strategy: roles and responsibilities, processes, decision paths, tools and data. The gap with the current model defines the transformation work.

The description of the organisation as it will need to be at the end of a transformation: structure, roles, governance and ways of operating. A discussable, shareable end point against which each step can be measured.

High-performing companies practice five disciplines: personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, and systems thinking.

A transformation is a process that consists in changing the organisational culture to achieve a specific objective.

Taylorism methodically reorganises work by breaking down and optimising tasks.

A tactical meeting follows a specific structure to move operational projects forward.

The user story is a short description of a need expressed from the user's point of view, often following the pattern "as a…, I want…, so that…". It serves as the unit of work for agile teams.

Upward communication refers to the flow of information from employees to higher levels of the hierarchy: field feedback, alerts, suggestions or results. It enables leadership to make decisions grounded in operational reality.

An organisation's values are the guiding principles that steer its decisions and behaviours. Explicit or implicit, they define what matters, what is encouraged and what is proscribed within the collective.

VUCA describes the uncertain and unpredictable business world in which companies operate today.

A system is considered viable when it survives autonomously in a changing environment thanks to its capacity for adaptation.

Workplace wellbeing denotes a state of physical, mental and social balance in the exercise of one's professional activity. It depends on working conditions, the content of the work, relationships and the sense of meaning perceived.

A structured, collaborative working session bringing a group together around a production goal: solving a problem, designing a solution, aligning points of view. A workshop favours the active participation of everyone present.

An organisation that encourages wholeness allows individuals to be fully themselves.