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The Sufferings of Flawed
Organizational Design

Imagine that you own a high-performance automobile. The tachometer is “redlining,” reflecting the fact that your engine is working as hard as it can or should, dispensing maximum RPMs. Yet despite your overheated and overworked engine, your ground speed is next to nil, moving at a snail’s pace. You would be dissatisfied. You would rightly conclude that something needs fixing.

Now think about your organizational structure – the configuration of roles, responsibilities, accountability and intentional relationships embedded in your enterprise. What if you saw members of your organizational family working as hard as they could – chronically exhausted at the end of each day’s long hours? Chances are that you already see this pattern. Conceive of your employees as the engine of your enterprise – because they are. If they are working as hard and hot as they can and yet you are still not arriving at your destination as quickly and assuredly as you want, might you conclude that something needs fixing?

Ask yourself: Do we have the right design for moving our enterprise sure-footedly into its prosperous future? Is our structure aligned with our business strategy and systems? Will our structure support the cultivation of competitive advantage for come what may?

If these are familiar symptoms, flawed organizational design may be the correct diagnosis.