The process of improving organizational performance through designing systemic interventions has remarkable similarities to designing instruction for improving learners' performance. Both processes deal with subjects (learners and organizations correspondingly) with certain capabilities that are exposed to novel information designed for producing a desired change. The article attempts to trace these similarities deeper to the underlying general principles that govern functioning of natural information processing systems that both human cognitive architecture (in case of instruction) and organizational systems may represent, and explores such connections and draws corresponding implications for research in human performance technology.