The “How”-Creating the New and Improved Organization
Historical Perspective
The authors’ perspective is that most organizational designs are blends of two or three models. It is rare when an entire organization follows purely one model. Click here for an overview of “Organizational Design History from the 1920s to 2000s.” This chart may answer some questions about the “what” of organizational design before discussing the “how.”
Getting Started
After taking the pop quiz, several areas to consider in organizational redesign probably come to mind. No matter how good the process is, any change will disrupt employees’ lives and impact company productivity. Therefore, before beginning a change, you need to be clear as to why you are undertaking this task.[1]
Three major areas to consider and assess as you move forward are:
The Business Itself-What are your customer’s needs and wants? What is the competition doing? What are the industry trends? What are marketplace changes? What are your organization’s overall strengths and weaknesses?
Company Values-What does your company stand for? What are your values? What is your vision? What organizational culture do you want to cultivate? How congruent are you with your stated values and your informal cultural norms and behaviors?
Major Processes-What are your most critical processes? How would you rate the effectiveness of these processes? Are your standards what they need to be?
The importance of data cannot be over-emphasized-both on your current organizational effectiveness and the future organization you want to become. To get to this first level of “assessment,” be thoughtful, uncompromising, and thorough. Your answers to these questions need to drive both your ultimate design and the process you use to get there. If your methods do not reflect your stated values, you will have difficulty gaining the commitment needed to successfully implement any organizational changes.
The authors’ experience suggests that the most successful organizational design processes have three things in common:
Focus on “Excellence”-start with a clean slate. Draw the organization that will respond to customer needs today and in the near future; that will create a competitive advantage and will both reflect and encourage the values and culture you desire. Even if cost-cutting is part of what is driving your change, do not start with cost-cutting as an objective. Start with organizational effectiveness as your objective and begin with a blank page.
The People in the Organization Drive the Process, not the Organizational Design Consultant-clarifying roles at the beginning of the process is essential. Now is the time to apply what we stated in our introduction-organizational design needs to be created by the human beings responsible for the organization’s success. Consultants need to create a partnership where expertise is shared freely, but where those who know their own business drive the process.
Involve and Communicate-we have found that the more people become involved in the process, the more effective the outcome. Involve as many people at as many levels as early in the process as possible. Take a multiple team approach. The authors are not blind to the sensitivities involved in any redesign effort, such as potential layoffs, etc. These issues seem to emerge in stages. They need to be addressed as you work through the organizational design process so that you can continue to include those who know the work the best.
The following “Organizational Design Model” not only addresses the above issues but it also provides an overview of the major steps in the design process.