{"id":611,"date":"2012-04-24T09:48:39","date_gmt":"2012-04-23T23:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thinkevans.com.au\/WordPress\/?p=611"},"modified":"2019-09-03T10:06:37","modified_gmt":"2019-09-03T00:06:37","slug":"is-your-organisation-organised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thinkevans.com.au\/WordPress\/is-your-organisation-organised\/","title":{"rendered":"Is your organisation organised?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before making organisational design decisions that will be productive and sustainable, enabling sound planning for the future, the organisation needs to be able to articulate its current state clearly.<\/p>\n

Already cringing?<\/strong> \u00a0 This is more than just consultant-speak or HR waffling: \u00a0it is as simple as knowing where you are so you can work out how to get to where you need to be. \u00a0The reality is, though, that there are many reasons companies fall more than a little behind when it comes to organisational documentation. \u00a0High growth, mergers, jobs constantly shifting to meet client needs or market pressures, lone wolf business units, decentralised management, or just too busy with business as usual – all these and more factor into the mix.<\/p>\n

And this time, size doesn’t matter.<\/strong> \u00a0We may not be surprised to find SMEs with “fluid organisational arrangements”, but at Think Evans we\u2019ve quite regularly seen large corporations lacking org charts, hundreds of job descriptions known to be out of date, five versions of reported headcount, or relying on internal phone directories as the “source of truth” for who works where.<\/p>\n

Large or small, these were successful businesses but none was in a position to make informed organisational design choices to respond to changing markets. \u00a0When the organisational design “housekeeping” is not up to date, the outcome is left more to chance than good planning whatever response is made. \u00a0 Never a good look, and even worse in an uncertain market.<\/p>\n

But don’t panic.<\/strong> \u00a0Falling behind with this is not an unspeakable sin and catching up is very do-able. \u00a0In fact, doing the “housekeeping” often gives the team the confidence to deal with the growth and\/or change that caused the backlog. \u00a0So perhaps it is time to take a step back and start building the knowledge bank needed to make the right decisions, down to grass roots of org charts, job descriptions, responsibilities and contractual terms.<\/p>\n

The key is to do it while you have time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The key lesson learned (the hard way by many other organisations) is that making organisational change decisions on the run will often end in tears – unsustainable solutions which slide back unchecked to the familiar territory of “how we like to do things round here”. \u00a0 So give the organisation a real shot at successful change by\u00a0allowing enough time to collect and analyse crucial information, providing a firm and factual foundation from which to work.<\/p>\n

To get the full picture don\u2019t forget to consider the supporting processes. \u00a0Employee data may uncover quick wins such as long term contractors, underleveraged management or market rate adjustments. \u00a0However, unless the checks and controls used to manage the organisation are in place and working then any hard won changes made inevitably revert with time. \u00a0For example, look at:<\/p>\n