Some things never change, and a constant in the tech industry is reorgs (obviously happens in other industries too). Especially in the past ~12 months, with looming recession, negative growth, and widespread layoffs, reorgs have become a lot more frequent than we’d like. While that might not be true of everyone, a lot of companies have had multiple rounds of reorgs over a short period of time. It is safe to assume that all reorgs are best intentioned, but they have created sort of a numbing effect due to sheer number of them. Reorgs are not just a function of layoffs or recession, they are also necessary when the company is going through growth cycles, strategic business shifts, realigning business functions and partner teams for collaboration efficiency etc.
It is timely to share a perspective on how to land reorgs with your team. If you are an org leader, you will find this helpful in either reflecting on a recent reorg or helping you prepare for the next one. If you are on the other end of receiving news about reorgs, this will help you build perspective into the black box.
Before you start any reorg communication and planning, there is a window to think about who are the right people you want to partner with, who you want to build/deepen the trust with, and whom you want to groom in handling reorgs. Generally, this should be all your direct reports, but there could be nuances, so it is important to consider this.
- Why is a new org structure needed? What was not working out as well in the past? How does it serve the business strategy? What has changed? What were some internal or external factors that are making this change now? This question needs to be answered even before a strawman of what the changes would look like.
- Once there is conviction, clarity and alignment that a reorg is needed, determine the specifics of the changes.
- Think about -
- What does the new og structure look like? How does it affect driving business and collaboration?
- Would this new structure solve the most pressing needs identified in the WHY? Apply the 80/20 rule. Any org structure right now is org debt X years from now. It’s all dynamic.
- Where does intersection lie for functional skills, drive, bandwidth, management bench.?
- Consider the impact to people and projects at a high level, but do not go too deep here at this stage, otherwise you will sway away from solving for the business needs. You need to hold the line, yet be empathetic. More on this below.
- After identifying all the changes and before finalizing changes and planning to share the comms, Identify key stakeholders internally and externally to seek input. In addition to getting valuable data points from their vantage points, this also helps building trust and creating early buy-in. This also might be a chance to “soften the blow” for someone who might see a significant change.
- It depends on the scale of the reorg, but it is very important for anyone who is privy to the information, not to share any work-in-progress information with others. This has a few side effects like - rumor mills, breaking trust, creating anxiety, impacts work engagement and quality..
- 1:1s - Use 1:1s for communicating sensitive changes and ask the same of your managers.
- Plan - It serves very well to have a detailed document for announcing changes. This doc not only gives you and directs a mental map of how things will go, but you can also use this to officially communicate details.
- Write a TL;dr
- The Why, The What and The How
- The How - Timeline, knowledge transition (spend a lot of energy on specifics here), project ownership, new DRIs, People conversations etc
- Map out each person and team. Do not leave any one out.
- FAQ -? There will be several questions regarding career, projects, budget, collaboration, charter and so on. You want to manage and own the message and not try to let teammates be confused and drive their own conclusions.
- Empathy and compassion - Lead with empathy and compassion on delivering the changes.
- Minimize people to manager changes
- Batch changes together - No one likes the uncertainty and constantly changing details/plans/structures
- Do not hide - Transparency is the best currency for building trust
- Take feedback - Create space for people to share feedback and ensure they feel heard.?
- Do not announce some changes are coming and sprinkle them - Be decisive and share everything together
- Reorgs are done for long term business success - Ensure that your team understands the long term reason for doing these changes. Hold a line and do not backtrack on changes per individual requests, but be open to it
- 1:1 vs group vs email/slack - People who are impacted relatively more than others, deliver the news in 1:1s. Use email and slack only as FYIs for additional stakeholders.
Equal parts Ted Lasso & Fozzie Bear | I help Eng & Leaders land fulfilling tech roles | 26 yrs in tech & 17 yrs in coaching | NYT, Today, Dice
2 年I will add: spec it out with success criteria. Sometimes a reorg solution isn't obvious until you see all of the things you're trying to optimize for. Sometimes it becomes crystal clear that you can't get everything you want, but you can find a solution that has what you need.