Coherence at Work: Structural Clarity, Leadership Design, and the Hidden Cost of Modern Organizations

Work is not exhausting because it is demanding. It is exhausting because it is structurally incoherent. In Coherence at Work, Gregg Patten examines the hidden architecture of modern organizations - and the quiet ways they rely on human nervous systems to remain stable. When uncertainty rises, who absorbs it? When ambiguity appears, who translates it? >Most workplaces do not collapse from incompetence. They collapse because stability is quietly outsourced to the most capable people in the room. This book is not a productivity manual. It is not a negotiation guide. It is not advice about setting better boundaries. It is a structural diagnosis. Drawing from organizational theory, structural psychology, and leadership design, Patten explores: - Why competence often becomes captivity - How guilt operates as a management technology - Why urgency substitutes for architecture - The moral compression created by money and survival >With precise language and grounded workplace scenarios, Coherence at Work offers a new way to see professional burnout - not as personal weakness, but as design failure. The question is no longer whether you are strong enough to survive your workplace. The question is whether your workplace knows how to carry its own weight.