Organizational design is about how to organize a large group of people in such a way that you reach your goal. You can do that in many ways. It's never a one size fits all blueprint, but there is also no unlimited set of possibilities. In this article, we discuss the most common mistakes (or misconceptions) that we encounter in practice.

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#1 Strategy is missing

Organizational design is a means to achieve your goal. But for that, you need to formulate a strategy. Structure follows strategy, so. If there is no clear strategy (i.e. a goal and a course of how to get there), there is a good chance that changing the structure will not help you.

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#2 Too much from the “ivory tower”

Another pitfall is that a core team develops the design completely in detail, without involving employees and management. Draw someone's department in detail and only then appoint the managers: things almost always go wrong. On the other hand, let people contribute ideas about the tasks and composition of the new team.

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#3 Organizing around people

We regularly see that managers start drawing rakes with names in them instead of positions. That there is organization around people. Even if people have been in a certain role for a long time but are not functioning properly. What happens then is that you pull the logic out of the model. We recommend that you start the conversation anyway. Explain how you look at it, discuss the possibilities and, if there's no other option, let someone go and take the pain. No matter how difficult.

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#4 Don't choose

There's nothing wrong with asking your team for input and having dilemmas face to face. But in the end, the design is top notch. So set up your organization top-down when it comes to making choices. Organizational design starts with making fundamental choices on the main lines.

The top should hear the opinions and finally make a decision. So first the board, then the management, then the management and then the layers below. What we often see, however, is that people do not choose. This leads to unpleasant compromises and 'dragons' of design, because it has not been clarified what everyone's role is and where the responsibilities lie.

The variant of this is “defer”. Sometimes people postpone important choices but people are put to work in advance, in an unclear role. As a result, it is not clear to everyone what their responsibilities are. By not choosing, you are actually creating a lot of noise.

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#5 Structure doesn't solve everything

Sometimes people experience that things are not going well or things are not going well in management. Or there is a new manager who wants to “turn the knobs”. The solution is then often immediately sought in a new organizational structure. However, it is much more effective to first zoom out and investigate what is going on from a distance. Sometimes a new structure is the solution, but often not at all.

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#6 Responsibilities not clear

We often see that organizational designs are devised where responsibilities are just not sharp. We often see this happen in matrix organizations. A matrix can work fine. But who is taking the decision at the intersections? Make agreements about this in the design. Because “trouble is coming anyway”. Who is the boss? Who gets to choose? Make sure those decision points are clear.

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#7 Yes, the meetings are also included

In addition to clearly describing what the tasks, responsibilities and powers are for all employees, it is also important to clarify the consultation structure. How does the consultation take place throughout the organization? Things often go wrong when you think that the organizational design alone is sufficient: now we've had the hard part and everyone will figure it out. But that's not how it works. Moreover, you won't get the full potential out of the design.

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#8 Unreal timelines

Organizational design affects people, their jobs and therefore their lives. When do employees get clarity? When will they hear what their new job will be? There's a lot you can do wrong here. But also win a lot! You don't create a new design in a few days. Because you have to test and sharpen it. And did you know that you have fixed processing times for requests for advice? It is usually used that a Works Council can take 6 weeks to advise. So you know some things in advance, so you don't have to leave employees in suspense and can inform them in time.

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#9 No one size fits all

The one size fits all method does not apply to organizational designs. It is not the case that one design in a certain industry (e.g. a bank) can be applied to every other bank. Every organization and culture is simply different. Of course, you can be inspired by existing organization designs, there is nothing wrong with that. But do you realize that your organization is different. Off the shelf and adjusting is not an option.

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#10 Do It Differently

Conversely, we also see that organizations sometimes want to completely change course. “We're going to change, and we're going to change a lot right away!” Fortunately, a design does not always have to be completely overhauled. Sometimes you do a number of things wrong when implementing the existing model: there is insufficient consultation or there is no specialization in the team to carry out the assignment. Take a step back. What problem are we solving here now? Starting an organization design without having a concrete reason to do so: not necessary.

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