The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels
Begin by thinking of yourself as the architect of your unit or group . This may be a familiar role for you, but it probably isn t. Few managers get systematic training in organizational design. Because managers typically have limited control over organizational design early in their careers, they learn little about it. It is commonplace for less-senior people to complain about misalignments and to wonder aloud why those idiots higher up let obviously dysfunctional arrangements continue. By the time you reach the mid-senior levels of most organizations, however, you are well on your way to becoming one of those idiots. You are therefore well advised to begin learning something about how to assess and design organizations.
To equip your group to achieve its goals, five elements of organizational architecture all need to work together: [1]
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Strategy: The core approach the organization will use to accomplish its goals
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Structure: How people are situated in units and how their work is coordinated
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Systems: The processes used to add value
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Skills: The capabilities of the various groups of people in the organization
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Culture: The values, norms, and assumptions that shape behavior
Certainly, you need a focused strategy to move forward effectively. But misalignments among any of these five elements can make even the best strategy useless. Strategy drives the other elements and is influenced by them. For example, if you decide to change your group s strategy, you will probably have to alter its structure, systems, and skills to support the new plan. As figure 6-1 shows, clarifying your strategy and aligning the supporting elements have to go hand in hand.
[1] This is an adaptation of the well-known McKinsey 7-S organizational analysis framework. See R. H. Waterman, T. J. Peters, and J. R. Phillips, Structure Is Not Organization, Business Horizons, 1980. For an overview, see Organizational Alignment: The 7-S Model, Case 9-497-045 (Boston: Harvard Business School, 1996). The seven S s are strategy, structure, systems, staffing, skills, style, and shared values.