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Reorganisation – Yea or Nay?

Writer's picture: Michael SoderlingMichael Soderling




Let’s start by acknowledging that there can be good reasons for a reorganisation.

 

The conditions for the business may have changed so much that there is no turning back. But before diving into a structural change, it might be worth investigating if the problem you’re experiencing can be solved within the framework of the existing organisational structure. To illustrate this point, let’s consider one of my clients. The company has a turnover of a few hundred million SEK and operates in B2B. Profitability is good, but if you look closer, you see some challenges, not least that some customers have pointed out that they are not entirely satisfied with the delivery. Management realised that this was due to a lack of internal collaboration. So far, everyone agreed, but how to proceed was not obvious to the management team. Let’s see how it all developed by starting with the findings in the data collection.

 

Attentive readers will recall a survey that measures how the management team perceives the conditions for collaboration within the organisation. Below you see one of the findings in the survey.


  • Statement: Managers and staff have sufficient insight into the tasks and goals of other teams.

  • Response: 0 yes, 7 no.

 

What happens if teams that need to collaborate do not have sufficient insight into each other’s tasks and goals? If we apply this to, for example, a sales department and a marketing department, we realise that cooperation might entail a bit of an uphill battle.

 

When I presented the survey findings to the management team and listened to the subsequent discussion, further insights emerged. Important information was often not shared between different parts of the company. Coordination of activities was lacking. Collaborations between different parts of the company were hampered by unclear responsibilities and mandates. It is one thing for a certain role to have clear responsibility and mandate. Likewise, within a team, a common interpretation of members’ responsibilities and mandates has hopefully been discussed. But now we are talking about what happens between teams. In that interface, my experience is that a shared view is often lacking.

 

Part of my job is to help my clients sort through intricate complexity and thus avoid jumping to hasty conclusions. The more I listened to the team’s discussion, the clearer it became that all of the above could actually be traced to an overarching flaw: They had not agreed on a reasonable purpose for the management team. If this is lacking, they will not tackle an important task for a management team: To identify and handle the issues and responsibilities that reside between managers’ areas of responsibility. This should include ensuring conditions for collaboration between different parts of the organisation.

 

It was not at all difficult to get the team on board, and the purpose almost emerged by itself: To lead, govern, and develop the company. Once established, it became completely obvious what the team needed to implement. Which was not a reorganisation but creating conditions for collaboration within the existing organisation. When I followed up on the assignment a few months later, the problems were either solved or on their way to being solved.

 

Should you want to explore the potential in your organisation, let me conclude with two suggestions: If you are a DIY-person, I recommend my freebie on organisational development. In it you you will find the tool I use to sort through the organisational complexity.


 

If you prefer to have a sounding board, let's put our heads together.


 

The clients that get in touch with me most often are CEO, MD or CxO. They reach out because they want to realise the potential in their organisations and accomplish extraordinary results. Here's what they have to say about my contribution to that end.

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