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Shadow Systems in Organizations: The Hidden Workflows That Shape Change
In every organization, there’s the official way things are done, and there’s the real way. The latter often lives in the shadows: undocumented workflows, informal networks, and improvised solutions that fill the gaps left by formal processes. These are known as shadow systems.
Workplace culture consultant David Stanislaw (2024) describes shadow systems as “the spontaneous efforts of employees to make work better.” Meanwhile, Kamilya Turdibayeva (2024) of ProcessMaker points out that shadow processes are often the result of “well-intentioned improvisation.”
What Shadow Systems Look Like in Practice
Imagine a company with a rigid ticketing system for IT support. It’s slow, so employees start messaging a friendly tech directly on Slack. That tech becomes the unofficial help desk. Or consider a marketing team that bypasses the formal approval chain by getting quick nods from a senior manager in hallway chats. These aren’t malicious acts — they’re attempts to get things done. But they also create parallel workflows that aren’t visible to leadership but practically shape how an organization actually functions.
