Is dysfunction in your org structure causing communication challenges?
One manager was sharing: Organizational structure seems to me to be one of the most significant issues impacting organizational communications.
She paused for a moment: What I came across a while back was that frequently we change the org chart to meet the demands of personalities and people problems; instead of organizing to accomplish the mission.
Mission first, then organize people to support the mission! For most that is about making the product, providing your service, etc. When we move people & their functions around, for relationship issues, personality and conflicts, the result is we are creating functional conflicts. We are also confusing communication channels, pathways and the information flow.
Indeed our people system should be designed to support the business vs re-designing the operation to support the people issues! Many companies have been changed so much to meet the personality quirks… that the lines of communication, information flow, etc don’t make sense anymore. We have dotted line relationships, people reporting to multiple bosses (which one of those dotted-lines is responsible for the leadership stuff?)
Systems and processes have become very confused. People get frustrated because nobody understands it… because it, the structure does not make sense.
The management world a while back was sold on a way of dealing with all this dysfunction. Someone began selling management on a marketing spin, labeled Matrix Organizational Structure. They tossed away the old organizational structure with some platitudes, made-up logics and reasoning to sell this matrix thing. They sold this idea as one that made sense as long as it had a name. Just throw out the dysfunctional org chart and call it Matrix.
What is so funny to me having watched the movie Matrix years ago; it didn’t make sense, it was crazy! They labeled this new structural idea correctly, because it also is nuts and makes no sense!
Before anyone gets upset because you loved the movie; that’s fine, but not the point here. Regardless it was still about some complicated, dynamic and confusing stuff!
***actually an excerpt/paraphrased part of a dialogue from my upcoming book...
Food for thought, BOOKER
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