Undertaking major shifts like a powerful exercise in your company rarely is easy.
For example, you might be working on shifting from being a custom services company to becoming a product company. I am sure you realize: That is a big shift.
There are other shifts that pose their own set of challenges: rapid growth, profitability problems, changes in leadership, key people leaving, or changes in the marketplace. Yes, rapid growth is a key shift!
But there is good news: There is a powerful exercise you can do to make such shifts faster and more successful.
A Powerful Exercise to Make The Shift Successful
The process is to reevaluate which roles your company now needs and which functions each role entails. I call this process the “Ideal Company Structure.”
- Define which roles your company now needs and which 5-7 functions each roles has.
- Design these roles and functions from a blank slate perspective. That means we drop all notions about who does what.
- Design the company structure from the ground up – without any names and titles involved.
- Only after coming up with the design, think of which team members fit which role (evaluate the fit for each function).
- Note any discrepanicees and address them over time.
It is STRONGLY recommended to seek an experienced outside consultant to facilitate this process. Why? If the team is left to its own devices, several issues are likely to occur:
- The team will keep thinking about the status quo. Team members will keep thinking of the roles as they exist right. They will think of the persons who are occupying these roles right now. This “status quo” thinking completely defeats the purpose of the exercise!
- Team members could become nervous about whether they will still fit into the new roles.
- Conflict could erupt.
An experienced facilitator can put keep these issues at bay and guide the team through the exercise one step at a time.
The Ideal Company Structure Exercise BoostsYour Success
The Ideal Company Structure exercise Is one of the most powerful, high ROI processes you can do in your company. It needs to be done periodically as the company grows and undergoes changes.
Without it, your company’s organization will likely morph into one where roles and functions are increasingly defined by your company’s status quo. Or, perhaps worse, roles and functions are poorly defined and accountability is lacking.
With the Ideal Company Structure process, your company is positioned to handle changes such as growth and expansion, changes in focus, and/or leadership much more successfully.
I’m Curious
- How useful could this process be for your company?
- Which possibilities could emerge from redesigning the roles and functions in your company from a fresh perspective?
- What might be possible if the roles and functions were not constraint by the strengths and weaknesses of your current team members?
To be clear, this process is not about letting go of team members or demoting anyone. It is about clarifying which roles and functions are needed and then assigning team members to be accountable for specific functions. You will also identify any gaps that might exist. These gaps can be addressed over time.
