Focus on unity over structure

"If we just had a different structure, everything would work better."

Would it though?

Organizational design is fundamental to effectiveness, for sure. A significant part of my work focuses on org strategy, but structure alone is rarely the cause of or solution to our problems.

Focusing specifically on messaging in complex organizations, the issues tend to have less to do with who reports where and more to do with who knows what. Ironically, the issue with communications tends to be... communication.

There is a very human tendency to want the boxes and lines to be orderly, implying a tidy and efficient flow of information and effort. "Behold our org chart. Now things are clear!" Unfortunately, there is also a very human tendency to want more than that. People thrive with, and struggle without, a lack of clarity of purpose, plan, and sense of how their specific job aligns with them. They want to know that they are a part of something bigger, no matter where they live in the organization.

There is no org chart that solves for poor internal communication.

Once we accept that though, opening up the lines of communication and collaboration unlock tremendous organizational potential.

Unification of vision, aspiration, and effort in pursuit of them should be our goal.

Structure is just a facilitator.

The effort to unify the institutional message transcends reporting lines, aiming at a that something bigger that requires us to think outside the (literal) boxes and lines, and give ourselves the permission to break the old and build the new.

We get to unification by balancing WIIFM (what's in it for me/my department or unit) and WIIFU (what's in it for us as a community). Unification is an invitation for those who manage the message to come together in pursuit that something bigger.

This is why I'm so drawn to campaigns - they are, at their core, a something bigger moment.

If we solely rely on the existing structure to bubble up the biggest ideas ("please enter the big ideas from your area into this spreadsheet") we're likely to end up with a lot of small and medium ideas. But if we bring people together in an effort to unify our aspirations around something big - even audacious - we've given them the opportunity to elevate their own line of sight and, as a result, messaging.

This opens the door to a message strategy that is both aspirational at its core and deeply relatable at the local level.

What we've seen over the past two years is that, when the norm goes out the window, we need to think outside the confines of structure. Let's keep giving ourselves and our teams the space and grace to keep on doing just that.

Image credit: Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash