Executives and managers have long been frustrated by reorganizations that simply do not work.
There is a more effective way to organize present or future work. This is the e-book that show you how to re/org the right way. Written by the originators of the "Language of Work Model (TM)," who have facilitated re/orgs in many different enterprises, you will learn a systematic, proven re/organizing methodology that will achieve the results you want.
Feel free to share this eBook with everyone in your organization.
This book was written especially to reach management at all levels of an enterprise. It will introduce you to a way of organizing or re/organizing work so that it can be more efficient and effective. It can show you a systematic approach that has been proven to work well and can work for you and your enterprise, no matter what level of work you are currently managing. The book is written with just enough detail to demonstrate the importance and value of a new way of organizing and aligning work. Its application should result in a well-honed organization in which everyone understands better what they and others do for the value of your customers and clients. A companion book to this one has the details that you needn’t bother with at this time, but you may ultimately want others to read so as to help facilitate the re/org. This book is free, but its value to you and the enterprise will be huge.
How many times have you been re/organized? What was the impact on the enterprise? Was it positive or negative?
If you have been re/organized several times you are likely to be working for an organization that has never been properly aligned to achieve its optimal performance level. This is typical of organizations that have re/organized five or more times in a ten-year period. Such businesses keep searching for the right organizational structure, but never quite achieve it; they fumble along doing business as usual. Sure, things get done; people come and go. Managers climb the organizational ladder and want to do things their way; outside executives are hired to do things a different way. Consultants are engaged with re/org methodologies that often don’t turn out to be as good as claimed. Cookie-cutter solutions are tried at great cost (e.g., the “Shared Services” silver bullet). Old ways of doing things become legacy systems that are difficult, if not impossible, to change or eliminate. And all this contributes to a circular attempt at getting work organized the right way.
How do we “Right the Enterprise” in a way that makes sense to everyone and achieves—consistently and efficiently—the goals of the organization? One that works smoothly and can make seamless changes? One we all can enjoy working for?
As we neared the completion of writing this book, on October 15, 2013, a long-time professional colleague wrote an insightful, unsolicited summary concerning the recent re/organization he had experienced following his company’s merger with another company. That summary captures rather well the feeling of most people when it comes to experiencing re/organization. He wrote:
"We are deep in the depression of merger blues with changes occurring routinely. From my perspective, the changes are primarily good for the corporation’s bottom line, the Sr. Officer’s bonuses, and possibly the shareholders. I see and feel very little compassion for the employees, hear what is just lip service, and believe those who can will look for greener pastures and those who can’t (or won’t) will just hang around in a state of apathy waiting to see what is going to happen next. In other words, if you’re at the top of the company, everything is going according to plan. For everyone else, at least all of the non-represented employees, it’s just another poorly executed merger and reorganization.”
Much of the cyclical, inefficient and poor re/organization behavior, such as reflected in the above commentary, is not surprising. Companies grow in leaps and bounds, adding individuals to get urgent work done rather than to execute well-defined, interlinking processes that best serve the customer. Groups and teams are mixed and matched to achieve what seems like, in someone’s opinion, the best way to do things.
This piecemeal approach is somewhat surprising because it is generally accurate to say that many of today’s enterprises are replete with well-defined processes. These processes often come from so-called “re-engineering” or “Lean” methodologies. You’d think that the enterprises which use them would therefore be pretty well organized. But even these well-thought-out processes—perhaps created in too much detail—usually struggle to be translated operationally into meaningful actions by individual job holders, teams and an appropriate management structure.
Still other businesses, which may not have defined their processes so succinctly, seek to achieve their ends with well-meaning people hired to execute the work in a climate of constant and recurring problems and inefficiencies. Goals may be achieved, but they are accomplished at minimal levels of efficiency, with wasted money, and by unhappy employees. Compound this with the introduction of new technology and/or of needed cultural changes, and the stage is set for new chaos. Re/organization and the introduction of new technologies can and often do waste time and resources, generating frustration that reduces productivity. Finally, we don’t need to overemphasize the problems that mergers and acquisitions present: clashing cultures, different methods and systems of doing the same things, and employees wondering where they fit in the new organization.
