Flight Level 3 connection patterns describe different ways to link strategic work (FL3) to execution across your organization. They're not about how to scale the Flight Levels model itself—the model inherently scales at any size. Instead, they show you how your specific organization structure connects strategy to operations.
Each pattern reflects a different reality:
- Your organization's size and structure
- The degree of autonomy across areas
- How strategy flows to execution
- Where coordination happens
Why They Matter
When strategy disconnects from execution, organizations drift. You end up with:
- Strategic goals that never reach the teams doing the work
- Teams working independently with no clear strategic alignment
- Wasted effort and misaligned priorities
The right connection pattern ensures:
- Clear flow: Strategy reaches execution without losing intent
- Maintained autonomy: Different areas can make independent decisions within strategic boundaries
- Visible coordination: You see how information and decisions move through your organization
- Scalability: The pattern adapts as your organization grows and changes
Each pattern page explains how it works, when to use it, and key characteristics.
The Six Patterns
We have four core patterns (fundamental mechanisms) and two combined patterns (compositions for complex scenarios).
Core Patterns are the building blocks. Combined Patterns are compositions of core patterns for larger, more complex organizations.
Choose the pattern that matches your reality. As you grow and change, you can evolve to a different pattern.
Essentials
Gallery view
Inherited Strategies
Inherited strategies involve a parent organization setting corporate strategy that subsidiaries adapt to their context without redefining the core strategy.
Common Strategy
Unified organizational strategy with distributed execution across multiple coordination systems for effective implementation.
Direct Strategy
Direct Strategy enables specialized strategic work to flow directly from FL3 to FL1 teams without requiring coordination through FL2.
Integrated - Independent
Integrated - Independent pattern for small organizations with one product/service, featuring a single board for strategy, coordination, and operations.
Integrated - Aligned
Integrated - Aligned describes a single integrated work system with coordinated areas for organizations managing multiple products/services, emphasizing transparency and active coherence management.
Inherited - Integrated - Independent
Inherited - Integrated - Independent pattern allows corporate groups with autonomous subsidiaries to execute independently while inheriting strategic outcomes set by the parent company.
Inherited - Integrated - Aligned
Inherited - Integrated - Aligned pattern describes corporate groups with subsidiaries that actively manage cross-product coordination to maintain strategic alignment with inherited corporate direction.
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