Restructures Don’t Have to be Scary: Essential Elements for Leaders
As a leader you may find it important or even necessary to change how your nonprofit or corporation operates. This might be to adjust to changing priorities, for organizational growth, or sometimes to reduce costs. A restructure is a big deal for organizations, and leaders want to be sure they get it right. Below I’ve outlined a few essential elements you can incorporate into your process to find the right structure, facilitate the change, and begin to reap the benefits of the new operations.
It’s important to start with a wide lens and consider at least a few different options when deciding on a new structure.
Understand current state. Leaders will want to ensure they have a full understanding of the current organization before deciding on a new structure. To do this they can conduct an organizational assessment and by reviewing information from various sources, including organizational documents like job descriptions, strategic plans, policies, procedures, and annual reports. We also recommend that organizations gather employee feedback, if the situation allows and it is communicated correctly. Employees often have the deepest insights about what is working and what isn’t in their organization and can provide valuable insights. Additionally, seeking employee feedback will allow them to feel heard and more bought into the process and the eventual change.
Identify objectives. Throughout an organizational restructure, leaders are required to make a myriad of decisions – the structure type, the right number of layers, and spans of control, just to name a few. To guide these decisions, we believe it is critical for organizations to identify and develop clear and explicit objectives for the restructure. These objectives should reflect what was found in the organizational assessment and aim to close any gaps that were identified. They should declare what the organization wants to see at the end and should be referred to and considered throughout the process.
Give yourself options. It’s important to start with a wide lens and consider at least a few different options when deciding on a new structure. Leaders may be tempted to go with the option that feels the most apparent or palatable, however, this might mean they miss out on the structure that will best support their organization. No type of organizational structure will be perfect; each one will have pros and cons. So, leaders will want to sketch out multiple options for the new structure, call out the advantages and disadvantages of each one, and weigh these as they choose the best option. A quick google search can show different types of structures along with their pros and cons to get you started.
Stick Around for the Change. Leaders may feel as though their work is done once the new structure is decided and that the details and transition can be left to their teams. However, we believe this is where it is critical leaders dig in and ensure the right communication, infrastructures, and support are in place on an ongoing basis. We recommend creating a detailed change plan with steps, responsibilities, and milestones to facilitate this process. Restructures require changes in the way people work and collaborate with each other. Thus, leaders must also keep a constant pulse on whether the change is actually happening and create accountabilities for doing so. Work behaviors can be difficult to change, especially without buy-in. We recommend continually communicating the “why” behind the restructure to employees as they make the transition.
Evaluate the results. It’s likely that an organization is feeling some pain points if it is going through a restructure. It’s important to determine whether those pain points have been addressed and whether the organization is seeing the benefits it hoped for. Thus, organizations should evaluate what happened as a result of the restructure; it should determine whether the implementation of the restructure has been done with fidelity (e.g., are people making the changes they should be?) and if it has had the desired impact (e.g., are we experiencing the positive outcomes we hoped?). This is a great time to revisit the results of the organizational assessment and the objectives of the restructure to determine what has gone well and where additional work is needed.
A restructure is one of the biggest changes an organization can go through. Here I’ve been able to touch on a few points to help leaders get it right. If you want to talk more about how C1C could help your organization create a great structure and implement it effectively, feel free to reach out!