Leaders today face increasing demands from a variety of stakeholders. The challenge is to figure out a way to create value for all the key stakeholders without taking from one to serve another. Pressures from stakeholders combined with increasing competition and advances in technology provide many dilemmas but many opportunities for the organization designer. We must get beyond the attitude of a zero-sum game and self-serving silos and create …
Introduction
Organization Design
When many people hear the words “design” and “designer,” they often think of fashion, interior design, or the design of everyday items such as glasses, salt shakers, and so forth. However, everything that is not created by nature is designed by humans (consciously or unconsciously). Thus, our human-created organizations can be purposefully designed or redesigned to produce even greater value for the multiple stakeholders. Unlike buildings or …
Organization Architect
Like architects of buildings, organization architects must leverage what we know (the science) of organizations and systems with what is possible and not yet imagined (the art) to develop solutions that address many constraints and the needs of multiple stakeholders. There are two main types of organization architects (OAs) — formal leaders and informal leaders who help them. Formal leaders include those leading existing organizations that …
The Framework
Leading the journey to sustainable excellence requires the flexible combination of leveraging the forces and facilitators of change with leadership activities and behaviors, organizational culture, and individual leader characteristics. The Leadership & Design Framework integrates the Design Framework into the Leadership Framework, providing a 14-step guide to [re]design and transform your organizations to achieve sustainable …
The Prize – Sustainable Excellence
So What? What can you expect if you decide to [re]design and [re]build your organization or a part of your organization? In other words, “what is in it for you.” What do we expect to get out of all this? First, the leadership and design approach is a more direct route to the goal of sustainable excellence than other options. Second, the direct route results in a faster journey which results in increased benefits and speed to …
