Organizational design involves creating roles, processes, and structures to achieve organizational goals. It is more than just positioning boxes on an organizational chart - it directly impacts employees' jobs and the firm's ability to achieve its strategic objectives. Success comes from building on strengths, going beyond traditional structures, clearly defining roles, developing employees, and supporting a culture of learning. Failure can result from not establishing goals, structuring around individuals rather than business needs, causing unnecessary disruption, and compromising the agreed-upon design process.
2. ORGANISATIONAL DESIGN
• “Organization design” involves the creation of roles, processes and structures to ensure that
the organization’s goals can be realized.
• Some people associate organization design with the mechanical arrangement of positions and
reporting lines on the organization chart.
• It is certainly true that organizational designers also need to define the vertical structure,
including reporting lines.
• However, organization design is much more than “boxology”.
• Organization design problems are often some of the hardest problems that leaders face.
Finding the right design often requires inventing a new solution to resolve a dilemma.
And decisions made with regard to formal structure, roles and processes directly impact the
jobs and careers of employees – and the ability of the firm to realize its strategic objectives.
4. SUCCESS
• 1. Build on your strengths:
As Socrates, father of Western philosophy and arguably the original disruptor, said, “Know
thyself.” Go ahead and acknowledge upfront that retooling your organization is a tough rock
to tackle. Then, identify who you are. Pinpoint the unique role that your company holds
against the competition. Define where these strengths will take you in the new world order.
2. Go beyond lines and boxes:
At the same time, building on your strengths doesn’t mean doing what you’ve always done.
Start by asking how the company’s unique strengths shape how people work and act. Balance
that by asking where your company structure isn’t currently serving your business goals.
5. 3. Know your roles:
Leaders can define technical roles and develop their teams' skills using Pluralsight IQ. First,
measure your team's knowledge with skill assessments. Then, see how well a team
member fits in a role by viewing the collection of skills needed for success. With a clear
understanding of where team members stand, leaders can design teams to have the biggest
impact in the organization and effectively solve business challenges.
4. Rock your roles:
Equally important is the development of those hires – and all team members – throughout
their entire careers. Offer them ongoing resources and training to ensure they continue to be
innovative thinkers and doers.
5. Support a culture of learning:
This one is simple: To keep employees learning, work learning into every day.
6. FAILURE
1. Not knowing what you are trying to achieve
Before moving boxes and lines on an organization chart, it is important to know why you are
doing the reorganization.
2. Structuring an organization for specific personnel
It is not uncommon for key people within an organization to have tremendous influence due
to their tenure, expertise, or importance to certain client relationships. As a result, there is a
risk that the preferences of the individual will become a priority during organization design
rather than the objectives and requirements of the business. It is incredibly important to
separate the organization design component from the actual selection of staff.
7. 3. Causing more disruption than needed
ScottMadden sometimes encounters clients who view reorganization as an opportunity to
“clean house.” Although it is true that the need for change usually provides a good
opportunity to also address other inefficiencies or problem areas, leaders should be cautious
about causing more disruption than necessary. Drastic staffing cuts or process changes can
result in reduced employee morale, the loss of valuable talent, stagnated innovation, and an
overall distraction from the mission of the organization.
4. Making decisions and/or having sidebar agreements outside of the agreed-upon process
A sidebar or supplemental agreement that compromises the documented, agreed-upon,
communicated process threatens project success. These actions can open the door to
additional exceptions to the organization design process and can result in an overall lack of
trust in the organization’s leadership going forward.
