Organizational design is about how to organize a large group of people in such a way that you achieve your goal. You can do that in many ways. It is never a one-size-fits-all blueprint, but there is also no unlimited set of possibilities. In this article, we discuss the most common mistakes, or misconceptions, that we encounter in practice.

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#1 Strategy is missing

Organizational design is a means to achieve your goal. But for that, you need to formulate a strategy. Structure follows strategy, so if there is no clear strategy, that is, a goal and a course for how to get there, there is a good chance that changing the structure will not help you.

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#2 Too much from the “ivory tower”

Another pitfall is that a core team develops the design completely and in detail, without involving employees and management. Draw someone’s department in detail and only then appoint the managers: things almost always go wrong. Instead, let people contribute ideas about the tasks and composition of the new team.

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#3 Organizing around people

We regularly see managers start drawing organizational charts with names in them instead of positions. In other words, organizing around people. Even when people have been in a certain role for a long time but are not performing well. What happens then is that you take the logic out of the model. We recommend that you have the conversation anyway. Explain how you look at it, discuss the possibilities and, if there is no other option, let someone go and accept the pain. No matter how difficult.

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#4 Do not choose

There is nothing wrong with asking your team for input and putting dilemmas on the table. But ultimately, the design is decided at the top. So set up your organization top-down when it comes to making choices. Organizational design starts with making fundamental choices on the main lines.

The top should hear the opinions and ultimately make a decision. So first the board, then management, then the managers and then the layers below. What we often see, however, is that people do not choose. This leads to unpleasant compromises and “dragons” of designs, because it has not been clarified what everyone’s role is and where the responsibilities lie.

A variant of this is “deferring”. Sometimes people postpone important choices, while people are already put to work in an unclear role. As a result, it is not clear to everyone what their responsibilities are. By not choosing, you are actually creating a lot of noise.

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#5 Structure does not solve everything

Sometimes people experience that things are not going well, or that things are not going well in management. Or there is a new manager who wants to “turn the knobs”. The solution is then often immediately sought in a new organizational structure. However, it is much more effective to first zoom out and investigate from a distance what is going on. Sometimes a new structure is the solution, but often it is not.

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#6 Unclear responsibilities

We often see organizational designs being devised in which responsibilities are simply not sharp enough. We often see this happen in matrix organizations. A matrix can work perfectly well. But who makes the decision at the intersections? Make agreements about this in the design. Because “trouble is coming anyway”. Who is the boss? Who gets to choose? Make sure those decision points are clear.

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#7 Yes, the meetings are included too

In addition to clearly describing the tasks, responsibilities and authorities for all employees, it is also important to clarify the consultation structure. How does consultation take place throughout the organization? Things often go wrong when you think that the organizational design alone is sufficient: now we have done the hard part and everyone will figure it out. But that is not how it works. Moreover, you will not get the full potential out of the design.

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#8 Unrealistic timelines

Organizational design affects people, their jobs and therefore their lives. When do employees get clarity? When will they hear what their new job will be? There is a lot you can do wrong here. But also a lot you can gain! You do not create a new design in a few days. Because you have to test and refine it. And did you know that there are fixed processing times for requests for advice? It is generally assumed that a Works Council can take 6 weeks to advise. So you know a number of things in advance, which means you do not have to leave employees in uncertainty and can inform them on time.

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#9 No “one size fits all”

The one-size-fits-all method does not apply to organizational designs. It is not the case that one design in a certain industry, for example a bank, can be applied to every other bank. Every organization and every culture is simply different. Of course, you can be inspired by existing organizational designs, there is nothing wrong with that. But realize that your organization is different. Taking something off the shelf and adjusting it is not an option.

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#10 Do it differently

Conversely, we also see that organizations sometimes want to completely change course. “We are going to change, and we are going to change a lot right away!” Fortunately, a design does not always have to be completely overhauled. Sometimes you are doing a number of things wrong in the implementation of the existing model: there is insufficient consultation or there is no specialization in the team to carry out the assignment. Take a step back. What problem are we actually solving here? Starting an organizational design without having a concrete reason to do so: not necessary.

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