Key lessons for organisation designers

I’m approaching the end of my second decade in organisation design. When I started out as a fresh-faced grad, I couldn’t have imagined doing ANYTHING for that long. But I find that there is something really compelling about working at the heart of organisations. Jumping in without knowing anything at all, getting people to talk to you about the nuts and bolts and helping them to solve problems. I haven’t spent 20 years doing the same thing. I’ve spent 20 years learning, crafting a better approach and applying it in totally different contexts. That's why I still love it.?

So, if you’re delivering OD work in organisations or maybe considering it as a career (please do!), here are some lessons I’ve learnt over the years.??

An organisation design process should grapple with questions beyond the ‘org chart’??

Some leaders view an organisation design process as, first and foremost, the means to get to a new structure. But it should rarely - if ever - be only that. In my experience, the organisation design process inevitably plays a role in driving wider change.??

I’ve often seen the process become a vehicle for achieving clarity on strategic direction, by defining more specifically what the strategy will mean in practice or surfacing trade-offs to be resolved. The listening and questioning you practice in the process can challenge leaders to see their organisation in a different light and should help to expose (rather than skirt over) some big questions.???

Just as importantly, if it’s done well the OD process can influence broader organisational culture. Thinking beyond roles and people toward the conditions that the organisation needs to be successful (and helping to find ways to design for those conditions) can be a powerful driver of change. Much more so than an aspirational “vision and values” document. It’s also worth remembering that the approach to the process itself can directly shape (positively or negatively) the culture of the organisation that emerges from it.???

Getting a solution ‘written down’ is the beginning of the journey, not the end.?

Often, there is a natural tendency for organisation design conversations to get narrowly focused on ‘who does what’ (tasks, responsibilities), at the expense of conversations on ‘how we work’ (interactions, interfaces). In my experience, it’s the ‘how’ that makes the biggest difference. It’s rare that people are wholly guided by their job descriptions – they’re typically orientated more by the relationships they have, the processes they’re involved with and the touchpoints they hold with other parts of the organisation.?

It’s not uncommon for leaders to run out of energy once the upfront design process has been done and the structural “solution” is on paper. This happens at the organisation’s peril, for it’s at this point that the hard yards really begin. There will be vital work still to do to test whether the proposed solution works in practice and whether the conditions are in place for it to function day-to-day. Fostering the right working practices and making any adjustments to these once a solution is implemented is far more critical than the structure on a page.??

An organisation designer’s job is to facilitate a human process, not show up with ‘the answer’???

Sound organisation design is an exercise in informed facilitation; and I find it’s helpful to think of OD as a verb rather than a noun.? An organisation designer is there to support leaders and teams to have valuable conversations about the way their organisation is today and the way it might need to be in the future. You are there to act on behalf of the organisation as a whole – bringing neutrality and a breadth of perspective.?

In this context, a key requirement for someone leading organisation design is harnessing collective experience from wide sources, ensuring that those closest to the day-to-day realities can directly shape the thinking.?

It’s also vital to grapple with the psychological aspects of the process. Humans are hard-wired to be wary of change, and all OD processes bring with them a degree of psychological discomfort, even if the goal behind them is a positive one.??

The change is only as good as the quality of thinking that people bring to it.?

In any given organisation design exercise, there is no ‘right’ answer; organisations have an almost infinite number of options when it comes to how they operate. Any OD change will involve choice points, and what works in one context may not work in another. Your role as an organisation designer is to facilitate the best collective decision-making from those involved.??

Purity is fallacy in this context. We are often drawn to the idea of ‘simple’ or ‘neatest’ solutions that make most sense on paper, but there are inevitable realities (strategic priorities, risk appetite, investment or people constraints) that mean all solutions need to be adapted once they hit the real world.? Organisation designers need to act as critical friends, balancing aspiration with pragmatism, and cutting through the complexity to get to the best – though importantly never perfect – outcome.??

I’m sure I could go on (and would happily share more for those who are interested!). But I guess I’ll part with this:?

Organisations are alive and messy. Full of humans whose behaviour you can’t predict or control. In many ways, “design” is the wrong word. If you're an OD practitioner, don’t oversimplify the problem or underestimate the solution. Be a good human. Work well with people and show genuine care about getting to the best outcomes. That’s essentially most of the job. The rest you can learn, with time. ?