Design around work not people
In organization design, there are some standards do’s and don’ts and near the top of that list is “design around work not around people.” As straightforward and obvious as this seems, inevitably leaders will think of their top performers and their preferences. And if I am in a role being reorganized my first instinct is to look after myself and ask the question “What’s in this reorganization for me?”. The behind-the-scenes campaigning begins and before you know you have people attempting to influence the outcome of the reorganization to make sure they are “looked after” in the process.
We are not saying you don’t want to keep your best performers. However, you want to think about them at the right time. A successful organization design process focuses on the work required to successfully execute a strategy and business plan, rather than starting with people and determining what work they will be assigned. Only when an organization structure (the distribution of accountability and authority) is decided is it useful to think about the individuals who will occupy these roles.
Leaders have a natural tendency to think about their people, those who are contributing to the organization’s success today and say something to the effect, “Charlie is my best employee, and we can’t afford to lose her. I need to make sure we have a job that will keep her happy.”
It is important to guard against this natural tendency and start with what you need your organization to accomplish by asking the question “What is the best way to organize the work to achieve our strategy?”
When roles are designed around people, then those selected individuals get to develop and grow but often at the expense of other employees and the business. The resulting organization can be a patchwork of unrelated work that may flesh out a resume but create other issues in the process. The unintended consequences of this approach include making it difficult for others to do their work, confusion along the value chain, and inefficiency and ineffectiveness. The better way to look after and develop those star performers is to give them roles for which they are suited, where the work is well defined, where they can contribute to the delivery of the strategy and success of the organization while they continue to develop new skills.
I once shared this point of view with a CEO over lunch, who informed me, “When I enter a new business, I bring in my team of key people – they are the people I can trust to help me lead the business.” My immediate reaction was, oh no, another people first, work design second advocate. This successful leader’s approach, at least on the surface, appeared to be people first. Had I been giving the wrong advice all these years? What the CEO left unsaid was he knew these people and their capabilities and the specific jobs he wanted them to do… “She will be my CFO; he will be my Marketing leader,” and so on. This CEO has already decided on the roles they will perform. As I observed his career over a series of business turnarounds, he had a success formula and a small team of trusted individuals who all had their specific roles to help him complete the turnaround. This was not building work around the people. He determined the work he needed to do and brought in the people to do that work. He knew the roles they would play and their capabilities to do the work that he needed to deliver the strategy.
So, if you are planning to reorganize, answering these 3 questions in the right order will increase your likelihood of success.
- What is the strategy?
- What are the roles required to deliver the strategy?
- Who can fill those roles and do the work?
This blog is part of our ongoing series Organizations that Work. To see all of the blogs in the series that have been posted so far, click here.
Every Tuesday over the next few months, we will be posting blogs that take you from the pain of poor organization design, to identifying the root causes, to the benefits of undertaking strategic organization review. We will discuss the steps needed to effectively align your structure and work with your strategy, and we’ll discuss the processes that take out the guess work and help you to get it done. Through it all we will discuss how to lead the change from start to finish.
If you’d like to speak with us about how we can help you on your journey to an organization that works, please follow us on LinkedIn or book a call directly with one of our partners.
Our approach draws on several bodies of work including Stratified Systems Theory, the work of Dr. Elliott Jaques. For more on Dr. Jaques and his work visit the Requisite Organization International Institute at ROII Requisite – ROII Requisite.