Organizational Design 101: Your Blueprint for Future Success 

Solid organizational design is critical for the success and adaptability of any business. Done right, it empowers your people and processes to go for sustainable growth, together. But what exactly is ‘organizational design’, what are its advantages  – and how do you get started? Here’s a quick guide. 

What is organizational design? An introduction

Organizational design is the process of crafting the blueprint for how a business should be structured to achieve its goals efficiently and effectively. Beyond structure, the focus is on engaging people, aligning them with the strategy, and gaining their support for new ways of working. It encompasses the arrangement of roles, processes, and systems within the organization, while aiming to overcome roadblocks that are hindering performance. 

Sounds complicated – or even a bit dull? It’s true: defining your organizational design requires quite thorough thinking and processes. But it remains a fundamental stepping stone for any business and experience has shown us time and time again that it’s a process you better not skip. And, because the world and your organisation evolve, you will need to repeat itperiodically. 

What makes organizational design so important?

As time passes and your company expands, the challenges you face become increasingly complex. From changing market dynamics and technological advancements to evolving customer expectations and employee needs – the old processes and roles that once worked for your business, might no longer help you to thrive today. 

If you don’t adapt to the new normal and, more importantly, bake in futureproof flexibility, your organizational structure might become a barrier to efficiency, employee morale, quality of work and thus, to profitability. An organization that stands still won’t drive your business forward. 

That’s when we see situations in which: 

• People follow inefficient workflows with unnecessary steps (like chasing each other for information) or redundant efforts (like redoing a task because it wasn’t good enough the first time, or doing duplicate work because responsibilities were unclear). 
• People avoid taking ownership of tasks or collective goals (“It’s not my job”), think in silo’s or blame other departments
• Progress slows down on most projects and decisions get delayed because people don’t have enough information or authority for frontline problem-solving. 

We see organizational design as key to helping businesses adapt and thrive. A clear yet flexible structure prevents inefficiencies while empowering teams, ensuring the organization drives the business forward. 

How to get started?

It won’t surprise you that the ideal process for organizational design depends on the size, complexity and needs of your organization. Yet the following steps are a definite must regardless of your context. 

Assess the status quo  

Analyze your current organizational structure and identify its strengths and weaknesses. This assessment is vital to develop a plan of what needs to be done to make improvements. 

Set clear goals 

What do you want to achieve? What is the overall strategy and the Big Hairy Audacious Goal? Based on that, what are the capabilities your organization needs to achieve and where do you see the key gaps (e.g. missing competences in the team, missing roles)? Subsequently, what are desired outcomes of the organizational design process? Set the bar first so you can draw up a clear scope and work toward your goals. 

Define your organizational vision & blueprint 

Based on steps 1 and 2, what does your ideal design look like? Define your vision, craft your blueprint, and structure your organization. Draw up the layout of your core processes and organize tasks, roles and workflows around them.  

Get everyone on board 

Make sure your new organizational design doesn’t only live on paper. Get buy-in from top management and key stakeholders, communicate clearly and extensively about the transition, offer training in the new design, and pay attention to employee feedback. 

Tip: turn your employees into ambassadors 

Getting your employees to embrace a new way of working is always tricky. But for your improved organizational design to take off, it’s paramount that every single member of your team knows the path you’re taking, understands the reasons why and is willing to cooperate and make it work. 

So, don’t skimp on proper change management to ensure company-wide buy-in! This involves, among other things, a lot – and I mean: really a lot – of communication with all stakeholders. Gauge employees’ and managers’ temperature about upcoming changes from the get-go, ask for their feedback and input, and make sure everyone knows exactly what to expect.  

To get your people to warm up to the idea of the new organizational design and embed it in their day-to-day, it helps to appoint a few ‘change ambassadors’ early in the process. Those are trusted peers who believe in the change and advocate for the change, and thus are willing to step up as your internal, low-barrier go-to people for questions, concerns, and support. 

Don’t just draw up an organizational chart and be done with it …  

As you can see, redesign projects can be a tough nut to crack. But it’s important to get it right, because there’s a lot at stake. And as mentioned earlier, it’s an ever-evolving process and it’s crucial to keep re-assessing the performance, challenging the design, and fine tuning the new organization.  

If you need help with any of this – from analyzing your current processes to crafting the ideal organizational design and guiding your people through change, we’re here. At The House of Marketing, we’re experts in organizational design, with decades of in-depth experience working with marketing teams. We go far beyond merely delivering your next org chart; we co-create it with you.  

With your unique business context in mind, we set up a roadmap with manageable steps, identifying the capabilities you need, and offering ongoing support that can extend over several years.