Impact Trust • Working glossary

Cognitive constraints / cognitive limits

When institutional structures cannot process the scale or speed of what they face.

Details

Our Take
Resonant for anyone who has worked in a large organisation; names something people experience but rarely articulate. The point is structural, not personal -- smart people inside institutions that cannot think at the right scale or speed. 'Institutional processing limits' is slightly clearer.
Examples of Use
Dark Matter Labs, institutional theory
Synonyms/Variants
Institutional processing limits; Bounded rationality (related)
Typical everyday wording
Institutions that cannot think fast or broadly enough.