The triad of solutions to the prisoners dilemma gives some really fast heuristics. e.g. if time-boxed, then reduce consensus; if hero req'd, give up credit; if consensus req'd, give up time commitments, etc.
The best easy book I can recommend about large organizations is Smith & DeMesquita's "Dictator's Handbook" because it provides a practical applied model for determining incentives between groups. Reality is, the people you are dealing with are running their own mental version of the model, where the coalition that keeps them employed and prevailing is made up of essentials, influentials, and interchangeables. They intuit a salience matrix of stakeholders (decision power, vs. how much stakeholder cares), and while everything is dynamic, it is usually within these parameters. It's a tool that can provide fast insight into group/project/org behavior pretty well.
The best easy book I can recommend about large organizations is Smith & DeMesquita's "Dictator's Handbook" because it provides a practical applied model for determining incentives between groups. Reality is, the people you are dealing with are running their own mental version of the model, where the coalition that keeps them employed and prevailing is made up of essentials, influentials, and interchangeables. They intuit a salience matrix of stakeholders (decision power, vs. how much stakeholder cares), and while everything is dynamic, it is usually within these parameters. It's a tool that can provide fast insight into group/project/org behavior pretty well.