What Does Organisational Design Mean for Me and My Work?

1. What Does Organisational Design Mean for Me and My Work? Frances Abraham & Jean Neumann www.tavinstitute.org For European Organizational Development Network: EODF Stream 7th May 2014

2. What is Organisational Design? How we plan to work with you today Coming up: Reflections on Literature (small selection of definitions) Some Case Study Illustrations Our Assertions about what needs to be involved in organizational design Followed by us all working together on What is important to each of us in working with organizational design, what we think makes for good organizational design and See if we can identify any underlying principles of our approaches But first …

3. Organization Design Definitions with Reference to Design Process ‘Organization design is the deliberate process of configuring structures, processes, reward systems, and people practices to create an effective organization capable of achieving the business strategy... ’ Using top-down versus bottom-up design processes. [Quote retrieved 21 April 2014, from www.jaygalbraith.com] ‘Organization Design is a formal, guided process for integrating the people, information and technology of an organization. It is used to match the form of the organization as closely as possible to the purpose(s) the organization seeks to achieve. Through the design process, organizations act to improve the probability that the collective efforts of members will be successful.’ [Quote retrieved 21 April 2014, from www.inovus.com]

4. Organisation Design Definitions with Reference to Values • ‘The manner in which a management achieves  the right combination of differentiation and integration of the organisation’s operations, in response to the level of uncertainty in its external environment.’ [Quote retrieved on 21 April 2014, from www.businessdictionary.com] • ‘Organizational design is a step-by-step methodology which identifies dysfunctional aspects of work flow, procedures, structures and systems, realigns them to fit current business realities/goals and then develops plans to implement the new changes. The process focuses on improving both the technical and people side of the business.’ [Retrieved on 21 April 2014, from www.centerod.com]

5. Different Ideas in the EODF Community about ‘What is Organizational Design?’ Ways of seeing org design: Contrasting two aspects: First, • Form: structure and processes Or • Form and culture Second, • Intentional change towards agreed, rational strategic objectives Or • Reflection on the current, emergent and adaptive or incipient design related to strategic interests Approaches to org design: • E.g. the star model (top-down) • E.g. socio-technical systems design (bottom up) • Holographic metaphors for remote and network configurations • Whole systems, step-wise methodologies using eg future search • Discursive, conversational, sometimes off-line

6. An Illustration of TIHR ‘School of Thought’ and Organisational Design Bert Painter’s Web-site: www.moderntimesworkplace.com – go to archives

7. Two Case Examples of TIHR Influenced Organisational Design One Primarily Internal Reference to Roles and Groups One Substantially External Reference to Environment Fiddy Local Government-led cross-sector agency collaboration (with health, police, voluntary and community agencies etc) Presenting Problem: Developing an architecture for collaboration which: - provided for different models of authorisation in different constituencies Addressed power differentials built on strengths of different types of organization Organizational design response: - Improvising new settings and conversational routines over 6-9 months • Jean • Training & Development Firm in service sector • Presenting Problem: External pressures decreasing value of internal work & seniors pulled outwards, internals insufficiently prepared to handle; succession planning • Organisational design solution: • Multiple outcomes from one main approach • Action research over 5 years

8. Abraham & Neumann, 07.05.14, www.tavinstitute.org TIHR Case Example: Organizational Design for Roles & Groups Training & Development Provider External reputation becoming increasingly important for purposes of attracting younger staff Problem: How to respond to external demand for well-known, senior trainers without undermining self-esteem of internal workload for modest trainers and junior staff (mostly administration and facilities management)? Organisational design solutions: Bottom-up redesign of work into ‘portfolios’ & ‘clusters’ based on STS principles Separation of external facing leadership from internal facing leadership Leadership team combining cluster heads (rotating) with external and internal leaders HRM via thematic working groups

9. Abraham & Neumann, 07.05.14, www.tavinstitute.org TIHR Case Example: Organizational Design for Inter-Organisational Collaboration Local government-led cross-sectoral agencies meeting new requirements , progress towards shared local objectives through joint action 9 month time-scale to meet nationally set targets Organizational design strategies employed: Work in existing settings to identify issues and triggers Work in cross-cutting settings to generate new relationships and communication channels Support for conversations in improvised cross-cutting groupings Modelling productive dialogue at whole system events on shared objectives

10. Our Own Assertions about ‘What Organizational Design Means’ Fiddy: “As far as I’m concerned, it’s not organizational design unless it addresses both structure and culture.” “A good organizational design in my opinion needs to involve participation from all parts of the system.” Jean: “ As far as I’m concerned, it’s not organizational design unless it addresses operations positively (meaning both the social and the technical).” “A good organizational design in my opinion needs to involve multiple, simultaneous changes over time, that is action research.”

11. Your Experiences with Organisational Design PLUSDrafting 1-2 Principles Complete these sentences based on your experience in offering or receiving organizational design: “As far as I’m concerned, it’s not organizational design unless ……………………………………” “A good organizational design, in my opinion, needs to …………………………………………” Work with others to discuss and craft one or two principles of organizational design (suggested by your sentence completion).

12. Abraham & Neumann, 7.05.14, www.tavinstitute.org Ending Comments • Please clearly write out your sentence completion examples onto one A4 sheet of paper, along with any organisation design principles that emerged in your discussions. • Add your full names plus clearly written email addresses onto the same sheet of paper. • Jean and Fiddy will type up the principles & send them to those of you who have participated today.