The Re-Org Myth

I am working with a technology group right now that is having trouble. While coaching one of the directors yesterday, I asked what was going on with his team that they were not projected to hit all of their goals. 

He lamented that that the team was trying to do Lean, as well as working on team cohesion, new leadership, and team culture. 

The group had recently re-organized — the sixth year in a row that this had happened. In fact, this director was on his seventh boss in that time.

I pondered this this state of affairs, and the eagerness to “solve problems” or “improve things” via re-orgs that seemed to be such a quick go-to for that groups senior leadership.

The re-org myth: you can’t re-org into improvement. You must to improve in order to re-org. 

Maybe this his is common knowledge among management consultants, but it doesn’t seem to be common knowledge among the leaders I’m working with. It is surprising that they are unaware of the impact of the re-org on the people. Maybe because they always work extra hard to meet their revenue goals, at the expense of employee engagement, morale, and retention goals. 

Not to mention not meeting goals for their Lean Management System, or improvement idea goals. 

I have noticed that it’s takes about a year for a team to go through the form, storm, norm stages before they have enough stability to start or resume Lean activities. 

What at are your thoughts about re-orgs? How have you seen them done well or poorly?