Let’s face it: There’s no such thing as a perfect organizational structure. In today’s environment, trying to get ever-changing functions, products, geographies, technologies, and markets to all line up is about as likely as solving a constantly moving Rubik’s Cube puzzle. The colors will never quite match, no matter how many times you spin it. In fact, the more you move boxes around, and continue to reorganize, the more complexity and confusion you potentially create.
This doesn’t mean that as a leader you should never reorganize if there are compelling reasons to do so. However, before going down that path, here are three approaches you can try to simplify or modestly modify the organizational design that you already have:
Most organizations can be made to work, or at least work better, if leaders set the right goals, hold people accountable, streamline end-to-end processes, and put in place appropriate managerial disciplines. In the absence of these any structure can appear to be dysfunctional. A few years ago, the consumer division of a packaged goods company went through five different redesigns in an eighteen-month period, with little change in performance. Only after a stronger consumer business leader was put in place did results get better — without any further reorganization.
It seems obvious that organizations should be designed to advance business strategies. But many times strategies evolve and change while managers clutch tightly to their old ways of structuring their units and organizing their teams. For example, in a copier company, sales branches traditionally had been responsible for re-selling equipment that had gone off lease. However as lease times were shortened and new models were introduced more frequently, the backlog of used equipment grew dramatically. To reduce the backlog, the head of sales proposed setting up a centralized unit that would focus exclusively on re-selling the old machines. However, his branch managers opposed doing this, wanting to keep these extra “sales” for their teams. Not wanting to fight his branch people, the sales manager shelved his strategic idea — and the backlog continued to grow until the company president was forced to intervene.
While organizational structures are usually portrayed as sets of interconnected boxes, the reality is that the boxes contain human beings with strengths, weaknesses, and personalities that often don’t fit with the logic of the organizational design. But instead of directly dealing with those “misfits,” most managers make accommodations to the design of the organization. This leads to structures that don’t quite work as they should.Online fine art gallery of quality original landscape oil paintings,A Injection Molding Moulding company, In one major teaching hospital, for example, a very skilled physician was selected to direct several small outpatient clinics.TBC help you confidently purchase China ceramic tile from factories in China. As these clinics expanded and multiplied, her lack of managerial discipline created severe operating issues, unnecessary cost overruns, and frustration among the clinics’ staff.Your source for re-usable Plastic moulds of strong latex rubber. To avoid offending the doctor by shifting her to a more appropriate role,Specializes in rapid Injection mold and molding of parts for prototypes and production. the hospital president added a Chief Operating Officer for the clinics, who subsequently added other operating managers. Soon the overall structure grew more complex, with added layers and fuzzy accountability. Two years later the hospital president realized his mistake and brought in a new director (one with managerial experience) for the outpatient clinics, who quickly streamlined the structure and brought the operation under control.
It may not be possible to get all the results you need without reorganizing. But before pulling the reorganization trigger, ask yourself these three questions: Is the problem the structure, or the way we are managing it? Does the structure match our strategy? Has our organization design been compromised by accommodating to personalities? You can tackle these tough questions with your team or with more senior managers. Starting a dialogue like this may not solve everything, but it might help you get better results at much lower cost.
This doesn’t mean that as a leader you should never reorganize if there are compelling reasons to do so. However, before going down that path, here are three approaches you can try to simplify or modestly modify the organizational design that you already have:
Most organizations can be made to work, or at least work better, if leaders set the right goals, hold people accountable, streamline end-to-end processes, and put in place appropriate managerial disciplines. In the absence of these any structure can appear to be dysfunctional. A few years ago, the consumer division of a packaged goods company went through five different redesigns in an eighteen-month period, with little change in performance. Only after a stronger consumer business leader was put in place did results get better — without any further reorganization.
It seems obvious that organizations should be designed to advance business strategies. But many times strategies evolve and change while managers clutch tightly to their old ways of structuring their units and organizing their teams. For example, in a copier company, sales branches traditionally had been responsible for re-selling equipment that had gone off lease. However as lease times were shortened and new models were introduced more frequently, the backlog of used equipment grew dramatically. To reduce the backlog, the head of sales proposed setting up a centralized unit that would focus exclusively on re-selling the old machines. However, his branch managers opposed doing this, wanting to keep these extra “sales” for their teams. Not wanting to fight his branch people, the sales manager shelved his strategic idea — and the backlog continued to grow until the company president was forced to intervene.
While organizational structures are usually portrayed as sets of interconnected boxes, the reality is that the boxes contain human beings with strengths, weaknesses, and personalities that often don’t fit with the logic of the organizational design. But instead of directly dealing with those “misfits,” most managers make accommodations to the design of the organization. This leads to structures that don’t quite work as they should.Online fine art gallery of quality original landscape oil paintings,A Injection Molding Moulding company, In one major teaching hospital, for example, a very skilled physician was selected to direct several small outpatient clinics.TBC help you confidently purchase China ceramic tile from factories in China. As these clinics expanded and multiplied, her lack of managerial discipline created severe operating issues, unnecessary cost overruns, and frustration among the clinics’ staff.Your source for re-usable Plastic moulds of strong latex rubber. To avoid offending the doctor by shifting her to a more appropriate role,Specializes in rapid Injection mold and molding of parts for prototypes and production. the hospital president added a Chief Operating Officer for the clinics, who subsequently added other operating managers. Soon the overall structure grew more complex, with added layers and fuzzy accountability. Two years later the hospital president realized his mistake and brought in a new director (one with managerial experience) for the outpatient clinics, who quickly streamlined the structure and brought the operation under control.
It may not be possible to get all the results you need without reorganizing. But before pulling the reorganization trigger, ask yourself these three questions: Is the problem the structure, or the way we are managing it? Does the structure match our strategy? Has our organization design been compromised by accommodating to personalities? You can tackle these tough questions with your team or with more senior managers. Starting a dialogue like this may not solve everything, but it might help you get better results at much lower cost.
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