Redesign an Organisation

CONSULTING METHODOLOGIES

Redesigning the organisation is one of the hardest challenges for a company to do on their own. It is almost impossible for employees to be objective and it happens rarely, so the organisation retains few people with skills or methodology to do it. Outsider thinking has the ability to cut through the politics and map out the changes.

I Executive Summary

• What is the company strategy?
• How does the organisation need to change to support this strategy?
• What specific changes have to be made?
• How will the changes be implemented?

II How does the organisation need to change?

• What is the company strategy? [Tool – Crafting a strategy]
• What does the organisation that delivers this strategy look like?
  • What are its key capabilities (processes)?
  • Where does it need to innovate? Where does it need to standardise and reduce cost? [Tool – Core/Context mapping]
  • What is its culture?
• What is our current organisation? [Tool – McKinsey 7S Model]
  • What are our current organisation issues?
• Where are the gaps between where we are today and where we need to get to?

III What specific changes need to be made?

• How will we build and strengthen our key processes?
  • How do current key processes map cut across organizational boundaries?
• What new organisational structuredo we need?
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of alternative organization structures?
  • How should business units be grouped and organised?
  • What should be done centrally, what should be decentralised?
  • How should supporting functions be organised?
  • What are the new reporting lines?
  • What are the key roles in the new structure? [Tool – Job descriptions]
  • How will key decisions be taken in the new organization? [Tool – RAPID Framework, Recommend/Approve/Perform/Input/Decide]
• How will our informal organisation ( e.g. networks, communities, relationships, teams) need to change?
  • What role should social technologies (e.g. wikis, blogs, forums) play?
• How do we need to change our supporting systems?
  • How will KPIs need to change?
  • What changes will be needed in our people systems?
    • Our incentive systems
    • Our performance management system
    • Our people development process
    • Our recruiting process
• What does the company culture need to change from and to?
  • What symbolic actions can be taken that underlines the cultural change?
  • What stories can we tell to the front line that reinforces the cultural change?
  • What “catalytic mechanisms” could we create to drive this change? [Tool – Catalytic Mechanisms]
• What are the people changes we need to make?

IV How will the changes be implemented?

• What stages will we have to go through? [Tool – John Kotter’s 8 stage change process]
  • Stage 1 How can we create urgency?
  • Stage 2 Who is our powerful coalition?
  • What are the key stakeholders in this change and what is their attitude? [Tool – Changeboard and Stakeholder mapping]
  • Stage 3 Have we created a compelling vision for the change?
  • Stage 4 Have we communicated this vision?
  • Stage 5 Have we removed obstacles to the change?
    • Are the main challenges in this change ones of skill or will? [Tool – Skill/Will matrix]
  • Stage 6 What “quick wins” have we engineered to build momentum?
  • Stage 7 How will will accelerate momentum?
  • Stage 8 How will we anchor/institutionalise the change?
    • How are we going to monitor and track our success?