Unlocking the Productive Power of Your People

How to boost an organisation’s productivity

By Matthew Rogozinski

Organisational redesign, an inescapable reality in the business landscape today, is often triggered by a drive to minimise cost pressures.  When it happens the redesign process itself is largely driven by the cost reduction targets themselves.  The people who are going to be affected by role changes or new reporting lines are often not consulted, and the end result is usually imposed on them from above by the redesign team.

Typically the organisation re-emerges from this kind of exercise battered and bruised. After experiencing the forced exits of some of their colleagues, and faced with yet another new way of doing things, the talented and highly skilled people who are tasked with taking the organisation into the new era often become ‘tired of change’ and demotivated. This can be a serious issue, particularly in a services business or a public sector entity, where the productivity of its people is vital to its effectiveness. 

At Inhance Partners we contend that for a workforce to be productive, three simple principles must apply:

• The right number of people need to be deployed to perform the necessary business functions; 

• Everybody must have a clear understanding of their roles and accountabilities; and  

• They all need to be supported by their leaders.

For some executive teams making this a practical reality can present something of a challenge.

These principles are an essential ingredient in any high performing organisation. However, resetting the dial to higher productivity is only part of the challenge. 

In this era of continual transformation and flux, the crucial question is:  

Can we reshape our organisation to achieve these lasting benefits, and maintain a highly engaged workforce that will perform at its best as a collaborative team?

We believe that you can. Weapply a co-designapproach that creates an opportunity for people to provide input into the future shape and size of their organisation. The genuine engagement of people across the organisation inspires ownership of change and greatly reduces the risk of the negative backlash typically experienced in the command-and-control, centre-led approaches.

Our Co-design Approach

The distinguishing feature of our approach is that it is highly consultative.Staff from each layer of the organisation are involved in the redesign from beginning to end. 

Most co-design projects progress through four stages: 

1. Designing the operating model;

2. Defining business functions within that operating model;

3. Sizing the resources for those business functions;

4. Filling the positions.

Setting for Success

The redesign process needs to be both transparentanddisciplined to ensure people buy-in to the change. The tasks to be completed and the agreed commitments on timing need to be communicated to the broader organisation, along with regular progress updates and layer-by-layer staffing announcements. 

Coordination is required to verify that the teams within each layer maintain a consistent form and standard of output, and that every team meets its completion deadlines, so each stage of the redesign can proceed seamlessly to the next stage.  Another important discipline is verifying that the sizing of functions is based on benchmarks or activity analysis so that the design is balanced across business areas. 

To create equitable outcomes for the individuals affected by the changes, we recommend clear agreement at the outset of the redesign process on the Principles That Will Guide the Redesign.

The Net Result

After our redesign program, an organisation will invariably see an uplift in its productivity due to:

• Significantly fewer layers in the organisation; 

• A more consistent choice of people in leadership roles and positions of technical expertise; and 

• The right set of resources deployed and better talent matches within business functions.

• This in turn stimulates:

Stronger accountability in individuals;

• Higher levels of commitment to the delivery of business plans;

• Tighter risk controls, greater agility and more fluid channels of communication; and

• Clearer career paths and an opening up of development opportunities for the organisation’s people.

If you are interested in knowing more about this approach to organisational redesign, please contact Inhance Partners.