Design Organizations, we need to do better
Like most people I spent the pandemic catching up on my reading, now I am catching up on my writing. Being a design management nerd I spent some time re-reading books on design management, specifically on design organizations: centralized, decentralized, partnerships (a.k.a., matrix management), squads with guilds and chapters, etc. So much to choose from. However, I can’t help but find it ironic re-reading these books, blogs, presentations, etc., that most of these optimal models suffer the same short comings the design profession has been advocating against for decades:
They only focus on one part of the problem
Assumes a one size fits all approach
Lack of systems thinking
Only focused on one persona/stakeholder
Rather than focusing on structural issues, they focus on the surface
And worst of all; they all assume going in what the best solution will be.
The discussions of these models conveniently skip over how structural changes to one part of an organization will impact the other parts of that organization. Likewise they also ignore the requisite business justifications needed not only for any organizational change but also for adding novel, permanent FTE roles to their company’s balance sheet. Indeed, aside from a few personal allegories, the authors really don’t provide any case studies or data to prove their models have a net positive impact on the design team, let alone on overall company delivery.
I can’t help but feel little disappointment that a profession founded on the idea of human-centricity is ignoring the fact that each company is different—with different needs, values, and goals, and that its promoting these one-size fits all designs (in this case they are organizational designs) to solve all the things and automatically improve everything. At the same time, after spending two decades trying to educate their colleagues on the importance of hiring professionals to design their products/services, that these authors appear to advocating that anyone who read the book or watched their YouTube video can design an organization.
Organization design and organizational management require not only systems thinking but a solid understanding of organizational sociology, management science, psychology, etc., to ensure healthy team dynamics, support diversity & inclusion, provide transparency, ensure scalability and growth, and deliver individual empowerment—across the entire organization. In practice it also requires the ability to model the cost benefits of any organizational change to ensure all the stakeholders are confident going in that this change will be worth the price. This is especially complex for companies with high cross-functional dependencies (i.e. software, service based businesses, etc.), restructuring one of their constituent teams means impacting all their other teams. An organizational change requires a comprehensive and well coordinated change management program to minimize distractions and expedite realignment; keeping everyone focused (as much as possible) on delivering value to the customers. People are not pixels.
What is also missing from these models are the tools necessary to first determine if your company’s current organizational model is actually underperforming relative to its business objectives: If it ain’t broke, why fix it? Before you can change an organization, you need to actually identify there is a problem, and understand its impact on the business, as well as its root causes; is it people? process? tools? Is it one team? Multiple teams? Are there systemic or operational bottlenecks? If you can’t show what’s causing the problem, why would anyone give you the green light to go changing things? In the end, you will need to demonstrate how your proposed organization change is the right solution for the company; that it addresses the problem while minimizing the risk of introducing new unforeseen issues, and increases the company's ability to deliver value.
While in some ways, taking a step back, this might feel like rolling out a new service or product release but it’s important to remember in this case you are dealing with the company’s most value asset; its people. And you will likely be scrutinized by a leadership team that, understandably, will be cautious of risking the faith those people have placed in the stability and direction of the company.
But one thing above all else, it is critical to remember—be it a product, service or an organization, starting any design believing you already know what the final solution needs to be, is a guaranteed path to failure.
As always, please feel free to share your thoughts.
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