No matter what industry you’re operating in, the organization design of your company plays a vital role in the growth and success of your enterprise. However, in today’s globally connected digital economy, many businesses often find themselves trapped in a seemingly endless cycle of corporate redesign.
Where previous workforce generations may have experienced a handful of redesigns throughout their entire careers (often motivated solely by lackluster revenues), today’s employees often endure some sort of reorganization on an annual or biannual basis, and for a myriad of reasons. The rampant surge of national and international mergers, an upswing in marketplace disruptions, strategic redirections, and continuous release of new and advanced technologies, not to mention a pandemic are just some of the many factors fueling organization flux across virtually every vertical.
Responding to Disruption with Well-Executed Organization Redesign
Without strategic analysis, alignment, and implementation, the results of an organization redesign can run the gamut from entirely inconsequential to completely counterproductive. However, when designed, launched, and supported with intention, a functional reorg can prove a powerful business transformation tool, yielding several invaluable corporate benefits, such as:
· Higher efficiencies
· Silo elimination
· Increased shared knowledge
· Workflow improvement
· Staff motivation and ownership
· Elevated trust levels
· Boosts in stakeholder engagement
Most importantly, a well-executed company redesign can drive cohesion across the entire organization, allowing both individual contributors and teams to move forward collectively in pursuit of the business’ goals and vision.
Three Ways to Incorporate Purpose and Intent with Your Organization Redesign
Don’t get stuck in an endless (and often fruitless) cycle of corporate reorganization. Go into your next redesign equipped with a few vital best practices to optimize results and ultimate success.
Redefine Desired Outcomes
In the past, C-level executives designed charts specifically to optimize cost and time efficiencies as well as overall output. However, focusing solely on efficiencies and effectiveness often increases internal silos and fragmentation, rendering an enterprise powerless against today’s turbulent and unpredictable circumstances. To better respond to disruption, successful businesses must reorganize beyond efficiency by prioritizing agility, adaptability, and responsiveness throughout the planning process.
Go Beyond Job Title
Many business owners start the redesign process with a hierarchy vision based on job title alone. Developing a reporting structure using only staff function as a barometer restricts employee mobility, obstructs team cohesion, and can ultimately increase lack of ownership across the entire organization. Instead, consider building the new design by reviewing the talents, skill levels, and (most importantly) behaviors of individual stakeholders. Doing so allows you to strategize how to best support changes in products, processes, and people throughout the company.
Develop a Culture That Celebrates Change
To achieve and sustain corporate agility, businesses must develop an internal culture that doesn’t merely embrace change but encourages it. Creating a traditional organizational chart with lots of straight, solid lines can quickly establish a fixed mindset where employees assume that they will only collaborate with a specific and finite crew of colleagues and stakeholders. While it’s important to define some parameters during a reorganization, it’s also essential to leave bandwidth in your final redesign that encourages both individuals and groups to meet with each other, share information and intelligence, and participate in various teams and projects. Developing a company redesign that promotes a fluid culture of change empowers employees to work together as needed thus supporting a growth mindset. Leveraging unconventional resources, methods, and technologies to best meet the strategic direction of the organization will set your organization up for success.
InfoWorks helps partners across multiple industries develop and implement organization redesigns that transform operations and drive return on investment. Contact us today to hear more.
