Does Your Org Structure Match Your Mission?

Does Your Org Structure Match Your Mission?

Organizational structures are social technologies that like any other technology is subject to a product life cycle - it will experience an introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. Like any other technology they were developed for a purpose, and to accommodate a set of variables in the environment in which they operate. As the variables in the environment change, and as the purpose of the organization changes, so will the effectiveness of the organizational model.

Through out history there have been an almost endless number of organizational models introduced. These models have proven successful in specific contexts, during a specific time period, given a certain environmental variables. For example, just about everyone who takes a management course will discuss the works of Fredric W. Taylor, and his development of Scientific Management. It is important to remember that Taylor was developing management theories and practices around the turn of the 20th century - when, according to the US Department of Education, the literary rate for adults in the US was 10.7%. Therefore, finding people who handle complex tasks, and communicate their progress broadly was far more difficult.

In Taylor's world you:

• Broke tasks down to their simplest elements
• Matched those tasks to the lowest skill levels possible in the organization
• Developed a best (and only) way that those tasks should be preformed - with very specific time limits within which they are to be performed
• And then used performance reports like a cudgel to keep employees in line
• No deviations, new methods, or accommodations were appreciated or allowed

The assumption was that the average employees did not have the decision making skills to direct themselves or their work process. You can imagine how well this model might work in a modern business that is dependent on knowledge workers; such as a software company, advertising agency, or law firm.

There are certainly other factors besides education that would likely affect the effectiveness of an organizational model. Say for example the proximity you have to your team, customers, suppliers, or business partners. The type of technology your team uses to complete their tasks. The type of communications infrastructure your company has, and how they culture has decided to use them. How tasks are scheduled or organized to allow for independent work. . . .

According to a recent study by McKensey 4 out of 5 employees who experienced hybrid work during the COVID-19 pandemic would like to continue participating in hybrid models - and over 90 percent of firms participating in knowledge work allow some form of hybrid work. These are major changes in the environmental variables. Changes like these are likely to affect any management model.

When assessing how the model might be affected by the current environment there are a few factors worthy of considering:

• Level of self management skills - The ability to manage one’s self is not a given in all situations. Certainly many if not most professionals have some level of ability here; however, this might be an opportunity for professional development
• Type of tasks to be performed - There are a number of successful fully remote or remote-first companies out there, so it is reasonable to assume much if not all of your work can be done remote. However, there are tasks that by there nature are well suited to remote work. and some that are not. Attributes that contribute to be suited for remote work include:
• Require focused independent effort
• Require limited coordination with others
• Can effectively be communicated electronically
• Reporting infrastructure and culture - When setting up reporting the mechanical questions might be:
• What are you reporting?
• When?
• To whom?
• In what format?
• Over what media?

However, there is a cultural component that is more difficult to define; which would assess the members willingness to share, and the level of honesty with which they are willing to share

• Communications infrastructure and culture - Do you have the an effective communications infrastructure. One that is reliable, easy to use, and leverages the current technology.
• Bias to asynchronous communications - After the start of the pandemic the number of meetings (both in-person and electronic) that knowledge workers were subject to increased 148%. This proved to be a huge time suck and not particularly useful. In many cases what should be communicated can communicated asynchronous - allowing employees to assess what they need and when.

Honesty in these assessments will often call out problems that we might wish to fix, as well as the reality of where we are today. We can then begin to build structures that will better support the goals we have to efficiency (how we use our resources), effectiveness (are we reaching our goals), and culture (how do we wish to live and interact with each other).

Some common features that successful modern organizational structure seem to share would include:

• Communications across all level need to be rapid and ubiquitous
• Extremely high levels of transparency. Teams and organizations need to share information to the point it is uncomfortable for traditional managers. This allows employees to make decisions in context
• Diversity of thought and perspective are key to the decision process. This goes beyond race and gender. It includes professional discipline, life style, geographic location, social background, . . .
• There needs to be structures designed for rapid aggregation of ideas from a broad set of people and disciplines. Far too much of the intellectual capital in organizations is wasted. Sometimes, through lack of engagement, but also through bad capture techniques. How are you capturing and sharing your collective intelligence?
• New ideas should stand-up to the scrutiny of a team. As part of transparency their should be a ways to share ideas, and leverage the collective intelligence in a review process.
• Agility and proper response time expectations are more important that the efficient use of resources, or the quality of the response, once both have passed a minimum hygiene level
• Develop an enabling environment where new ideas and processes can develop on their own

Managers in highly traditional organizations might find the ideas outlined above very uncomfortable. The structures are foreign and lack some of the privileges of rank that top managers may have enjoyed in the past. However, as we move forward it would seem clear that these more open, flexible, and agile structures are harbingers of even more open, flexible, and agile structure to come

#organizationaldesign #management #remotework