The worlds of leadership and organizational design are undergoing significant transformations, and when the environments change, the organization must eventually respond, and today this must occur at a rate and in ways never before seen or imagined

FREMONT CA: People are at a crossroads in their lives where they must invent, innovate, and adopt new, more aware leadership philosophies to meet the demands and complexities of today's environment. The next generation of leadership attitudes, models, and methodologies is now being developed by pioneers. While the significant emphasis is placed on learning new leadership skills, this is insufficient. Increased leadership abilities are simply one part of a two-part formula for modernizing an organization's effectiveness.

The organization's capabilities must be designed to be at least equal to, if not greater than, the leadership team's capabilities. The first step is to stop looking at a company through the org chart's viewpoint. While the org chart is useful for defining departments and authority, it is a dangerously inaccurate picture of what organizations are and how they function. This is because they imply that information and people flow in a linear, orderly manner across organizations, much like vehicles do on an assembly line.

See Also: Top Organizational Development Service Companies (AddingZEROS, Davidoff Strategy,  MLC and Associates, Totem)

Organizations are, in fact, sophisticated, adaptive systems made up of a network of networks. They are continually learning, changing, and adapting in response to internal and external stimuli, and they are significantly influenced by changing conditions and tribal dynamics. As a result, they are far from linear and steady. To maximize their performance, their designs must enable agility, collaboration,

communication, and empowerment.

It's understandable if the notion of updating an organizational design is intimidating. However, if one takes it one step at a time, applies some basic principles, and perseveres, one can make significant progress pretty rapidly. Engaging individuals in the department they want to improve in the assessment conversations involve people in the department they want to improve in the redesign discussions, ask and invite questions, and document their new designs are the four stages that must be inculcated.