What work process does organization design touch?
Several of the Organization Design Forum Board members were having dinner with a Dr. Bennett of Queens University in North Carolina. We were explaining that the design of an organization is not just moving the boxes around but the design impacts many processes and people in the organization.
When you redesign an organization you impact: structure, culture, virtual and physical space, people and human capital, business processes, agile software development, engagement, coaching leaders, and I am sure there are others I do not recall at the moment. In mulling this I recalled a few stories that helped me see some of these ideas more clearly. All of the stories had design teams, a microcosm of the division or the organization being redesigned. The design team defined the purpose, got clear on boundaries of the work, and managed the work through the design process. They also had communication teams that did just that, they let the organization know what was happening when and invited them into work sessions.
Physical space: Telephone operators redesigned themselves into teams. They decided they wanted the team to sit together in a horseshoe space with a table in the middle so they could turn their chairs and have a quick meeting to share techniques and information. The space supported the teams in being more efficient and productive.
Structure, Human Capital and Teams: A mortgage bank to reorganize how they would do their work. Several of the manager positions were eliminated. The groups formed themselves in teams with team leaders. The mangers were asked how they would like to handle the elimination process, they replied that they would like a meeting with their leader, they would like to know if they still had a job in the company and what their options might be and how they would be treated if their job was eliminated.
Business processes: In doing a diagram of the flow of work through a printing plant, the people discovered that much of the work flowed in and out of customer service. This interrupted the flow of work. They redesigned the flow so customer service was a part of all the teams and thus were there to answer questions on the spot. As a result work flowed much more smoothly and faster.
Culture and Engagement: A hospital system composed of 5 hospitals in the same geographical area set out to design 2 processes across the 5 hospitals. They wanted to engage as many employees as possible. The way they engaged the employees was having a large design team with representatives from each hospital. They invited 300 people including all stakeholder groups to come together to create the vision to improve patient care and patient access. They had a full time communication team that engaged managers to hold walk thrus (meetings that were mini conferences) for all staff which they scripted and worked with the managers for 6 weeks between conferences. They also held a series of conferences (workshop type events) where participants identified how patients moved through the system and how they gained access. At the last conference a blueprint for moving forward was created. They then had a team to put detail to the plan. After all this work the employees were surveyed and 85% said they had an opportunity to be involved and engaged in the process.
I am wondering about your experience and what you see occur in the organizations that you work with. What are some of the things that organization design touches?
Emily Axelrod