Organisation Design : Part 4

I always say that 5 average Pete’s do not compensate for 1 amazing John. And here is where organisation design in today’s organisation becomes really interesting (and fascinating, but I guess I am a bit of a HR nerd!).

Going back to what I previously shared, designing an organisation was relatively straight forward. Top-down hierarchy, functional silo’s then cross-functional dotted-lines, then a full-on matrix organisation. You could still draw lines, draw in the boxes filled with specific roles, hang job descriptions on them and calculate your FTEs.

But what when “5 average Pete’s do not compensate for 1 amazing John”? Which box? What job description? How does it fit?

The trend I witness over the evolution of organisation design is that we have moved from designing based on 1) Delegating → 2) Communication (process improvement) → 3) Cross-functional information flow (breaking down silos) → 4) Decentralised decision making (matrix) to developing today what I call the 5) “knowledge-based-network-organisation”.

The knowledge-based-network-organisation requires renewed thinking around organisation design, recruitment and leadership.