“Best place to work” culture and high-performance business results, though elusive, can be achieved through focused execution of the five pillars of elite organizational design. Here is a brief explanation of each of the five pillars:
- Start with values. Whether you are starting a new business or reviving an existing one, start with publishing, training, and relentlessly emphasizing 5-10 values which establish the desired culture and one or two competitive advantages. Prioritizing values is never wrong.
- Create a winning strategy. Strategy establishes the way in which your business will profitably out-compete others for customers in a focused market. Good strategy is 6-8 statements of what needs to be achieved. You can give your strategy “legs” by identifying tactical ways to implement each strategy.
- Design the structure for strategy implementation. Organizational structure is simply the necessary people organized to implement the strategy. Understand the importance of matching the complexity of each tactic with the capability of the accountable person charged with implementation of that strategy.
- Build systems and processes for effectiveness and efficiency. Systems and processes capture the learnings of an organization and then does them repetitively. The systems and processes will reflect your values as well.
- Reinforce good management behaviors. Every action (or non-action) builds or tears down trust. Managers must be taught and shown how to build trust continually and how to support systems and processes while being accountable to creatively implement strategy.
Success in organizational design is a result of teamwork, collaboration, and coordination of the many moving parts of the organization. The company’s executive leadership must understand the synergy among the parts and keep them working in harmony. Consider the benefits of creating and maintaining elite organizational design. What are your thoughts about the five pillars? Which pillar would be of interest for future posts?
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