{
  "handle": "LateralityCost",
  "ref": "LateralityCost#b281",
  "stub": "b281",
  "semaId": "sema:LateralityCost#mh:SHA-256:b281fb7f41f047b98e626103e33df15e7094bba711bbf7dc1badf6a80f18aa22",
  "layer": "Society",
  "category": "Coordination",
  "gloss": "An action gets harder with every additional unit that must coordinate to perform it",
  "mechanism": "Laterality is the number of functional units, whether people, teams or departments, that must coordinate for an action to happen. Unilateral actions are easiest, then bilateral, then trilateral and beyond, for the same reason as in {{multi_path_reliability}}: each extra party is another condition that must line up, like a meeting slot that every busy attendee must share. Laterality costs less between units that share a manager, and so are naturally aligned, and that already talk often, so that {{peripheral_hitchhiking}} can carry what they need. A good structure makes most of the organisation's actions unilateral, most of the rest bilateral between aligned units, and so on.",
  "invariants": [
    "Every structure makes some important actions high-laterality",
    "Laterality cost falls with alignment and with existing communication bandwidth"
  ],
  "failureModes": [
    "Reorganising around today's priority and making other essential work high-laterality, like moving a blanket that is too small",
    "Promoting people for their strengths and amplifying their weaknesses through the position",
    "Counting only the parties involved and ignoring how distant they are in the structure"
  ],
  "ring": 1,
  "tier": 2,
  "aliases": {
    "multi_path_reliability": "MultiPathReliability",
    "peripheral_hitchhiking": "PeripheralHitchhiking"
  },
  "buildsOn": [
    {
      "handle": "MultiPathReliability",
      "type": "references",
      "alias": "multi_path_reliability",
      "url": "/knowledge-graph/MultiPathReliability/",
      "json": "/knowledge-graph/MultiPathReliability.json"
    },
    {
      "handle": "PeripheralHitchhiking",
      "type": "composes_with",
      "alias": "peripheral_hitchhiking",
      "url": "/knowledge-graph/PeripheralHitchhiking/",
      "json": "/knowledge-graph/PeripheralHitchhiking.json"
    }
  ],
  "usedBy": [
    {
      "handle": "GameTransitionGraph",
      "type": "references",
      "alias": "laterality_cost",
      "url": "/knowledge-graph/GameTransitionGraph/",
      "json": "/knowledge-graph/GameTransitionGraph.json"
    },
    {
      "handle": "OrganisationGame",
      "type": "references",
      "alias": "laterality_cost",
      "url": "/knowledge-graph/OrganisationGame/",
      "json": "/knowledge-graph/OrganisationGame.json"
    }
  ],
  "sources": {
    "research": [],
    "works": [
      {
        "kind": "book",
        "label": "On the Origin of Risk",
        "note": "(Timlett 2025), ch. 11 (laterality and the org chart)",
        "url": "/research/on_the_origin_of_risk/"
      }
    ],
    "homePage": false
  },
  "url": "/knowledge-graph/LateralityCost/",
  "graphUrl": "/knowledge-graph#LateralityCost",
  "directory": "/knowledge-graph/patterns.json"
}