An organization’s model is specific and unique to their vision, resources, capabilities, and internal and external variables. Internal variables might include an employee with a particular talent or idea that gives the organization a unique position in the market. External factors might include economic conditions, regulatory changes, or even just luck.
When preparing and implementing a organizational model redesign the following risks & considerations should be taken into account:
Change Management Strategy
Engaging employees & stakeholders; ensure transparency, communication, and agency
Coordinate efforts with change partners
Continuously clarify and confirm
Embrace opportunities for innovation
Resource Management
Assess existing resources (money, time, talent,) and identify gaps.
Work with stakeholders and sponsors to secure resources where needed.
Business Continuity
Ensure same or better service/product during change implementation.
Communicate with customers and manage expectations
Determine how to measure long and short term success with qualitative and quantitative data. Talent management can be measured using traditional metrics such as turnover/retention and employee satisfaction surveys, but should be supported and supplemented with opportunities for dialogue. Doing so prevents spread of misinformation and generates buy-in from the workforce.
Article: Does the changes in organizational structure make sense to you? What are your reactions?
The chance in org structure does make sense, though at times it can appear to be a chicken/egg situation. Is Agile a response to increasing customer demands based in the organizational design research; are customer needs and expectations driving companies to find a new way of working? Or is the speed and innovation of Agile methodology conditioning customers to expect more, faster?
Beyond the four change drivers listed by McKinsey: environment, technology, digitization, and the war for talent, there are a number of other factors that will change the way organizations operate.
DEI and Changing Perceptions of Identity: Gen Z and Millenials expect organizations to recognize and celebrate every aspect of their identity, such as preferred gender markers, reproductive choices, and disability identity. For example, on the heels of the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic many people developed or are publicly acknowledging disability status. The US Government is struggling to keep up with changing medical findings to identify how employers should evaluate and respond to needs related to Long Covid Syndrome, which can manifest as physical, medical, or cognitive limitations. There are many more people who have have physcholgical trauma related to circumstances of the pandemic. It is increasingly difficult to address these needs at scale from a reactionationary stance. Employers need to adopt a proactive barrier-removal strategy.
Volatility in the Global Economy: Interruptions in consumer and manufacturing supply chains, and the threat of looming war in eastern Europe have destabilized the market in unexpected ways. Organizations need to reassess what resources are essential vs tangential to their operating model and rebuild their workforce planning mix (build, buy, borrow, bot) accordingly
Generational Priorities and Demand for Flexibility: Current and emerging workers have an increasing expectation of autonomy around work tasks, location, and hours. Highly skilled workers are moving to gig work by listing on marketplaces like Upwork to gain agency and gain (or maintain) work/life balance.
5 Trademarks of Agile Organizations per McKinsey
Strategy
Structure
Process
People
Technology
How People Drive Agility
Serve as avatars and liasons for customers
Passion and mission-driven to innovate
Evolving skill sets and lifelong-learning
Deep subject matter expertise
Curiosity; comfort with ambiguity
Transparency and continuous communication
Openness to knowledge sharing
How Technology Drives Agility
Continuous connectivity - employees can work where and when is most effective for them
Data-driven decision making - the ability to collect and analyze information quickly supports decision-making
Data democratization - aids transparency, communication, and informed problem-solving
Accessibility - new systems with UX-friendly interfaces empower employees to create better workflows and processes at the local level.