Organization Structure and Work Processes Designed for High Performance

Poor organization structure and work processes (in other words poor organization design) stop many organization's from achieving high performance. Unfortunately many leaders think of organization design as something done by the H.R boffins.

Of this you can be sure ... every day you as a leader are making organizational design choices ... the problem is when you don't understand organizational design and its impact on performance ... you often don't fully appreciate the impact of choices you make.

So don't abdicate your responsibility to H.R -- instead partner with them so you have the best chance to design your workplace for high performance. Any H.R specialist worth his or her salt will be jumping with glee when you rock up to their door wanting to understand organizational design and how it impacts on your team!

Before we go much further, you may be wondering "What is a high performance culture? A high performance culture is characterized by:

• Planned organization design choices
  
  
• Minimizing of management control
  
  
• Enabling people who do the work to control how it gets done
  
  
• High commitment
  
  
• Lean, flat, flexible structures
  
  
• Delivery of results that outstrip traditionally run organizations
  
  
• Commitment to a common vision
  
  
• Business focused
  
  
• Integration of people and equipment (not people to equipment)
  
  
• Leadership committed to facilitating the best in others
  
  
• Teamwork and multi-skilling across functions and boundaries
  
  
• Delegation of authority and decision-making to the person closest to the task
• Principle based rather than rule based
  
  
• Energized people committed to learning and doing their best

For an organization to thrive leaders need to stop thinking of people as expendable, whose hands and head are more important than their heart ... instead of thinking "How can we get them to work harder/faster/better?" The high performance leader's mindset shifts to "How do we create the conditions that inspire commitment to our organizational goals?".

Make no mistake. Creating a high performance culture isn't founded on a leadership team that listens more and is nice to people, that provides quality of work life and balance, that puts people in teams.

To change your organization culture you need to adjust the design that glues it together ... and understand the impact of those design choices.

Organizations are perfectly designed to get the results they get. In other words if you want different results from your business you will need to scrutinize and somehow change your organization design structure and processes.

The name you apply to organization design is not that important. What is important is that the change is approached systematically and you have long-term commitment from the leadership team to follow through, even when it gets tough. Realize this: Whether you choose to use a structured organization design model or not, you are constantly making design choices that impact on the culture and work systems and consequently the performance of your business.

Re-design of your organization structure and work processes to high performance is an exciting time for any leader. You will grow, learn and develop ... and from this you will step into even more of your potential. Enjoy your journey as you deliberately design and create a workplace that will be successful for the long term. You will feel exceptionally proud to have been a part of the process. Guaranteed