Business Core · Organisation · Module
Structure
How work is divided into units and joined up again: the basis for grouping, the spans and layers of management, and what coordinates across units.
The idea
How it works
Structure has two halves, and most redesigns attend to only one of them. Grouping decides which work sits together under one head — by function, product, market, geography or process. Coordination decides how work that was separated gets joined again. Every grouping creates new boundaries, and each boundary needs a mechanism across it, or the work that crosses it will slow down.
No grouping is neutral. Grouping by function builds depth of skill and makes cross-functional delivery slower; grouping by product or market speeds delivery and duplicates skills. The useful question is which coordination the organisation most needs to be cheap, and then what it will do about the coordination it has made expensive.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Name the grouping basis per level
Say whether each level is grouped by function, product, market, geography or process, and why. A structure whose basis nobody can state has usually accumulated rather than been designed.
- 02
List what crosses each boundary
For every pair of units whose work depends on the other, write down what passes between them. That list is the coordination the grouping has made necessary.
- 03
Give each dependency a mechanism
Standardised outputs, a liaison role, a shared forum or an integrating role. A dependency without a mechanism is left to goodwill.
- 04
Check spans against the work
Wide spans suit similar, independent work; narrow spans suit varied, interdependent work. A single rule applied everywhere fits some teams and not others.
One level in
The components of structure
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
Span and layer record
How many people each manager leads, and how many layers sit between the top and the front line.
Learn
For every boundary the structure draws, name what coordinates across it. Most structural problems turn out to be boundaries with nothing assigned to them.
The other modules in organisation
Decision rights
Which recurring decisions exist, who makes each one, who must agree or give input, and what authority is delegated below the board.
LearnLeadership
What leadership is expected to do in this organisation, how that work changes from one layer to the next, and how leaders are judged against it.
LearnAdoption
The human side of change: who is affected and how much, how far each group has actually taken the change up, what resistance is saying, and what holds it in place.
Learn