I concentrate where an independent management
consultant can be most useful to senior management –
supporting their own design efforts, applying organisation
design thinking to special situations and working on sensitive
issues that it may not be possible to delegate internally.
I can:
Help top teams clarify their strategies
and redefine the business models that link strategy to
organisation
Develop options when senior management
wants a fresh perspective on its strategic redesign or
some new ideas on a familiar problem
Carry out short one-off assignments,
particularly those that require a discreet approach rather
than a big team, for example when weighing up the organisational
capabilities of potential acquisition candidates
Evaluate the designs and dynamics of
existing organisations as a health check or to provide
the facts for a possible organisational redesign or investment
decision
Act as a sounding board so that senior
executives and teams can talk through their design ideas,
speculate about options and think the unthinkable in a
safe environment
Help plan and run organisation design
processes and projects
Conduct ‘walkthroughs’ so
that clients have a chance, before starting a major redesign
or restructuring, to visualise what their challenges and
options might be and to think through possible design
processes – and their pitfalls
Join clients’ own design teams,
adding resource and content knowledge
Coach or brief individuals or teams
who want to get better at organisation design
Develop proposals to resolve difficult
or novel organisational and policy issues (including the
‘orphans’ that belong to no one and everyone
and often end up at the CEO’s door)
Switch from designer to detective, using
organisational forensics to get to the bottom of persistent
problems or the causes of critical events..
In addition, I can help other professionals
– architects, service and product designers, space planners,
civil engineers, policy developers and business strategists
– who need to consider organisational form and function
in their own work.
