Conway’s observation is usually quoted as a caution. It is more useful read as leverage.

Designing the inverse

If you want three independently deployable services, you need three teams that can decide independently. Trying to get the first without the second produces the coordination overhead of separation with none of the autonomy. The organisational change is not a consequence of the architecture; it is a precondition.

This also explains why architecture initiatives stall. A diagram cannot cross a reporting line. When the boundary you drew on the whiteboard runs through the middle of a team, the team will route around it, and the code will show you exactly where the real boundary was.