NewsBeat

May/June 2017 NewsBeat 17 predictable cadence to a business so that all of the interconnecting gears are working in coordinated fashion and the strategy is being executed and monitored appropriately. Fail to reform this, and your organization may simply retrench to silos and border wars, and fail to achieve common goals. Design clear, meaningful roles. It's common in organizations for people to respond to the question, "So what do you do here?" with something like, "Well, there's what my job description says, and then there's what I do every day." Jobs, like organizations, must be carefully crafted not around people's preferences or idiosyncrasies, but around needed work and outcomes. The "mitosis" factor of organization growth usually has jobs "divide" the way cells do as humans form. Such mitosis is one of the worst ways to scale an organization. It creates both costly redundancies and soul-sapping jobs. Some people's jobs may become boring and narrow, while other employees may find themselves juggling dozens of unrelated tasks. In other cases, organizations may bend the necessary work of a role to fit the employee within that role, diluting what needs to be done and settling for what can get done. Roles should be designed as widely and largely as possible so that people are continually challenged and fulfilled. Stretching people's skills sustains a feeling of personal growth and satisfaction. It also enables great organizational breadth, something vital for when people are ready for expanded leadership responsibilities. With all of these approaches, remember to build an organization that you can actually implement. When you go to assign your talent base to your new design, if you are left with too many people "to be determined," you have built a design that exceeds what you can implement. Designing organizations for "super humans" never goes well. It has to be a design that can stand up in the real world. That's not an excuse to compromise, take an easy way out, or accept the mediocre talent you have to work with. There has to be a balance. To get further, design for your ideal state, and then adjust accordingly. Designing your optimal organization takes hard work, sacrifice, and significant trade-offs. They must be balanced against the realities and constraints of real life. But thoughtful design work pays great dividends and helps avoid the painful statistic of a failed reorg. Ron Carucci is co-founder and managing partner at Navalent, working with CEOs and executives pursuing transformational change for their organizations, leaders, and industries. He is the best-selling author of eight books, including the recent Amazon #1 Rising to Power. Connect with him on Twitter at @RonCarucci — Reprinted from the Harvard Business Review "Those of us who dare tell stories for a living — true stories — often talk about our place in the tribe. Since we first scratched images on the rocks, we have been the scribes — the keepers of history. We bear witness when others cannot. We ask the questions others will not. At our best, we are the guardians of truth — or at least its seekers." Seeking Truth — Jacqui Banaszynski, writer, editor and journalism professor, "Homage to a Storyteller: Eulogy for Alex Tizon"

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