The Operating System Canvas

The Operating System Canvas

The Operating System Canvas is a tool for organizational sense-making and reinvention. Each of its nine dimensions can be used to clarify and provoke the principles and practices that shape your organization and culture.

According to Aaron Dignan, the operating system canvas creator, organization design is hard. Whether you’re the CEO of a global corporation, the founder of a startup, or a team leader inside one of the tens of thousands of companies that make our world turn, you’re up against one of the greatest puzzles ever conceived. We see evidence of this everywhere we look. Corporate longevity is down. Employee engagement is dismal. Leaders from every industry and geography tell us about the myriad problems they’re facing in their own organizations.

As Itamar Goldminz explains in his Medium post, the operating system canvas framework decomposes the organizational OS into 9 components:

• Structure & Space
• Authority & Decisions
• Information & CommunicationsPolicy & Governance
• Purpose & Values
• Meetings, Rhythm & Coordination
• Strategy & Innovation
• Resource Allocation, Targets & Forecasts
• People Development & Motivation