How Smart Change Leaders Leverage Organizational Structure

How Change Leaders Leverage Organizational Structure During Change
Based upon change management simulation data, we know that the best change leaders leverage organizational structure during change to get better results.

What is Organizational Structure?
Before change leaders leverage organizational structure during change, they must first understand org. structures.  From our perspective, organizational structure encompasses the Goals, Roles, Tasks, and Processes used to organize the flow of work to meet specific objectives.  When roles, success metrics, or  strategies are unclear, it is difficult for teams to perform beyond the sum of their parts.

Organizational Structure Matters During Change
During organizational change, smart change leaders leverage organizational structure – what we in the change management consulting world call the Structure Lens. The Structure Lens includes the Relationships, Job Designs, Work Processes, and Rules that are used to coordinate and accomplish specific work.

If there is any strategic ambiguity or dissension regarding who does what, when they do it, how they do it, and why they do it, the chances of your change initiative succeeding are greatly diminished.

The Structure Lens of Change Management
Focusing on the Structure Lens during organizational change is particularly important when:

• Shifts in go-to-market strategies requires shifts in how work must be delivered
• A team is being restructured or re-engineered
• The organization desires to have groups become more collaborative, empowered, or self-managing
• Internal operations must change to become more efficient or more satisfactory to external or internal customers.

Four Ways to Leverage Organizational Structure During Change
When it comes to organizational structure during change, the best change leaders get better results by effectively:

1. Operationalizing the change vision for success into clear and value-added processes that are aligned with the desired outcomes.
2. Clarifying scope, roles, relationships, decision making, success metrics, and processes every step of the way in a manner that makes sense to key stakeholders and is in alignment with the corporate strategy,  the workplace culture, and the talent management plans for success.
3. Establishing fair, meaningful, consistent, and transparent performance standards, rewards, and consequences for success and failure.
4. Clarifying boundaries and responsibilities between groups and functions along with key inter-dependencies and plans to overcome potential barriers to success.

The Bottom Line
Are you paying attention to “organizational structure” during your change initiatives?  If you are not, you should.

To learn more about how the best change leaders succeed, download The Top 5 Science-Backed Ways Leaders Should View Change