The concept
Organizational Sclerosis describes the gradual hardening of an organization around process, bureaucracy, fear and inertia until change becomes unnecessarily difficult.
Why the lineage matters
This is not a one-off metaphor. The archive shows the concept repeatedly returning in Jim Carroll’s innovation work across different years and contexts.
The language of clogged arteries is useful because sclerosis is cumulative. One approval step rarely destroys innovation. Hundreds of small frictions eventually can.
What evolves
The earlier material focuses on recognizing and battling the condition. Later work connects it more directly to innovation killers, complacency and the inability to respond at the speed required by external change.
That makes Organizational Sclerosis an important companion to the Acceleration Gap: one describes the external/internal speed mismatch; the other helps explain why the internal organization remains slow.
The question behind the archive
Which habits were once useful but have now hardened into barriers to the future?