Tag Archive for: organizational change

Why Strategy Often Fails

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Not because it’s wrong, but because the structure can’t carry it.

Many leadership teams assume that once a strategy is defined, execution will follow. But in reality, strategy often collapses under the weight of a structure that wasn’t built to support it. 

Intentional Design—the operating systems, roles, and workflows that turn strategic intent into daily traction – accelerates the translation of strategy into execution.

Align. Design. Lead.TM

This article is part of our series introducing our uncomplicated, powerful framework designed to help build organizations that can adapt, perform, and thrive through complexity. To read previous articles in the series:

Introduction to the Align. Design. Lead. framework

Executive Misalignment is a Silent Killer

Align Case Study

Strategy collapse is a real risk for organizations facing: 

  • Rapid growth or new product launches—where structure hasn’t kept pace with scale
  • Post-acquisition complexity—with overlapping roles, unclear authority, and conflicting ways of working
  • Shifting go-to-market models—where cross-functional alignment is critical but hard to find
  • Evolving leadership or governance—where decision-making defaults to a few rather than being distributed

In these environments, even strong strategic plans get bogged down by unclear roles, misaligned teams, slow decision cycles and over-reliance on informal channels. Effort is duplicated. Handoffs missed. Authority is ambiguous. Collaboration is inconsistent. Execution begins to depend on personalities, not process.

It’s not a failure of intent. It’s a failure of design.

Design the organization to support the strategy – regularly

It often takes an objective analysis to understand the highest value changes you need. Here’s how we work with clients in the Design phase:

  1. Clarify the Work and Focus the Design:  Starting with our Align. Design. Lead. Organization Assessment tool, we hear directly from you about where you most significant issues may lie. We can then dive deeply into what must get done to deliver on the strategy—and what’s getting in the way. This approach adds efficiency and quicker return on investment to the effort.
  2. Define the structure: We evaluate and realign roles, reporting lines, and team interdependencies for strategic fit.  Collaboration is streamlined and agility to meet changing market needs is increased.
  3. Strengthen decision-making: We map and realign decision rights so execution flows faster—and ownership is clear.
  4. Support the middle: We ensure mid-level leaders have the tools, clarity, and support to operationalize change and lead the shift.

The Outcome: From vision to traction

  • Strategy gets translated into real, workable plans
  • Execution moves faster, with fewer dropped balls
  • Leaders know who’s responsible for what, and how to collaborate to make change stick

This is what Design looks like in action—and why it’s often where momentum is won or lost.

If you’re rolling out a new strategy—or scaling into a new phase—and your teams aren’t moving with it, let’s talk.

Schedule a conversation

 

Align. Design. Lead.TM is a flexible, non-linear framework that helps organizations move through inflection points with clarity and momentum. Whether you’re scaling, retrenching, or reimagining your business, the framework meets you where you are — helping you:

  • Align leadership teams to operate with strategic focus, speed, and cohesion
  • Design the organization to match your strategy—structure, roles, and workflows built for execution, not just org charts
  • Lead with the capacity and mindset required by mid level leaders to navigate uncertainty and drive change

For an overview of the full framework

Is your organization is under pressure but needs some assistance on where to focus next? We’d love to talk.

No fluff. No one-size-fits-all. Just clarity, momentum, and the confidence to move forward.

 

Schedule a call

Align. Design. Lead.

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How your organization should be wired to think, decide, and act.

From strategy to execution.

 

Let’s be clear.

Some organizations do suffer from flawed strategies. But more often, we see good strategies break down because of what’s underneath:

  • Misalignment at the top
  • Structures that can’t carry the load
  • Leaders trying to lead through change without the time, tools, or clarity they need

That’s where Align. Design. Lead. TM comes in.

It’s not a process you follow. It’s an approach you take—one that adapts to your starting point. Whether you need all three parts or just one right now, the framework meets you where the pressure is real.

  • ALIGN your senior team—not just around strategy, but how you decide, execute, and lead together
  • DESIGN the structure, roles, and workflows to move from vision to traction
  • LEAD with the adaptability and clarity your organization needs right now

Here’s the part many leaders miss:

In times of uncertainty, the instinct is to add layers—more processes, more rules, more initiatives. But complexity doesn’t need more complexity.

You need elegant simplicity—a way to cut through the noise and focus on what actually enables your organization to function, adapt, and perform.

 

 

Align. Design. Lead. is that kind of simplicity. It’s built from 25+ years of working with organizations at their most critical inflection points—growth, contraction, reinvention, and reset.

Over the next several weeks, we’ll unpack each part of the framework —and how our clients are applying it strategically, selectively, and successfully.

 

Schedule a call or Learn more

 

 

What Good Leaders Do When They’re Worried Too.

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Even when they don’t have all the answers.

Let’s be honest—leaders are feeling it, too. The weight of budget pressures. The ambiguity of shifting markets. The quiet wondering: Will this affect my team? My job? And yet, amid all this, employees are looking to leadership for confidence and direction.

This is the moment where the leadership gap either narrows—or widens.

Here are four tips for leading when everything is not alright.

 

Steady Doesn’t Mean Stoic. You don’t have to pretend nothing’s wrong. In fact, that kind of false optimism only creates distrust. Your team wants to see a real person leading them—not a cardboard cutout of “executive confidence.” When someone is feeling uncertain, they often look to see how those around them are showing up. You can’t always provide certainty in a difficult environment, but how you are responding will help quiet some of the concern. For example, a colleague of mine is facing a pending announcement of layoffs at her company.  She’s a seasoned career professional and has been here before. She has as much uncertainty as the rest of her team; however she is showing up for them by sharing her experiences with a previous lay off, what she’s learned about navigating internal resources, and being curious about what her team is feeling and thinking.

Name What’s True (and What’s Not). People fill silence with worst-case scenarios. Don’t let fear metastasize in the absence of communication. Tell your team what you do know, what you don’t know, and what you’re watching. Earlier in my career, I heard a great saying “Like milk, change has an expiration date.”  What’s true today may not be tomorrow. Transparency breeds trust.

Invest in Mid-Level Leaders. Your middle managers are often closest to the emotional pulse of the organization. This is when they need the tools and support to lead through ambiguity. Train them to hold space for uncertainty while keeping teams focused and aligned.

Align on Purpose. When strategy is in flux, purpose becomes your anchor. Reconnect your people to why their work matters—not just to the business, but to your customers and communities. In times of fear, meaning is one of the most powerful antidotes.

Bottom Line:

You don’t have to have all the answers. But you still have to lead. And that’s what people will remember when the crisis passes.

Our Breakthrough Leadership program helps mid-level leaders lead in uncertainty.  Click here to learn more. 

Designing for Uncertainty

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How to Build A Resilient Organization in a Shaky Economy

Uncertainty isn’t a temporary disruption anymore—it’s the new background noise of doing business. Tariffs shift markets overnight, massive government layoffs ripple through industries, and investment slows as caution takes hold. And if it’s not these specific uncertainties, rest assured, the changing world will offer up others to take their place.

Many organizations are structured for predictable growth and efficiency—but that model cracks under pressure. One of the reasons organizations struggle with responsiveness is because they are built for stability, not agility.

So how do you design for a world where the ground is always shifting?

1. Build for Flexibility, Not Just Efficiency

Highly optimized org charts look good on paper—but they tend to collapse when circumstances change. Instead, consider flatter structures, cross-functional teams, and role fluidity. Think less about locking people into permanent roles and more about how teams can self-organize to solve emerging problems. This doesn’t mean you need to completely remove the management structure. It does mean you need to lead for empowerment, not control.

2. Create Distributed Decision-Making

In volatile times, centralized decisions move too slowly. Flatter organizations and more fluid roles needs to include distributed decision-making and autonomy so you can respond quickly in a shifting economy. Push decision-making authority closer to the action—equip leaders at every level with the clarity and trust to act quickly. Ensure alignment by creating guardrails for action with a clear vision and purpose, expressed values, and simple guidelines that inform decision making. Speed and clarity are your competitive advantages.

3. Design for Scenario Planning

A good org design helps leaders ask: “What if…?” rather than scramble to respond once something happens. Build routines for scenario planning into your leadership rhythms. Let the organization know this is part of how you are leading. Amidst uncertainty, the more people understand you’re planning for a variety of potential futures, the more their concern about the unknown diminishes. Structure your organization to flex without breaking when the unexpected arrives.

4. Reduce Internal Friction

In times of uncertainty, even minor bottlenecks become major liabilities. Look at your workflows, approval processes, and communication norms. Are they built for clarity and momentum—or control and caution? You’ll need more of the former.

Bottom Line:

Resilient organizations don’t guess right about the future. They’re just better at responding when the future surprises them. They can respond because they have proactively prepared. Design yours with that reality in mind.

How to Prepare for Growth Even as You Recalibrate

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The Strategic Pullback: Positioning Your Organization for What’s Next

Our shareholders, our boards, and we, as executives, continually focus on growth — bigger markets, expanded teams, new investments. But what happens when the smartest move isn’t pushing forward, but pulling back?

The most effective leaders understand that growth isn’t just about scaling up—it’s about structuring for what comes next. Sometimes, that means making tough decisions now—restructuring teams, streamlining operations, or refocusing priorities—to create the right conditions for future expansion.

 

The Both/And of Smart Growth

Too often, organizations get caught in either/or thinking:

  • Either we grow aggressively or we restructure and slow down.
  • Either we hire more talent or we optimize what we already have.
  • Either we expand into new markets or we strengthen our core business.

The key is to not accept these false choices but instead to think in terms of Both/And:

  • How do we redesign now to accelerate growth next quarter or next year?
  • Where can we streamline today to scale smarter tomorrow?
  • What strategic moves position us for long-term success, not just short-term wins?

Key Considerations for Recalibrating for Growth

If you’re rethinking your structure now to enable future success, consider these essential factors:

  • Talent Realignment: Are your key people in the right roles for where the business is heading? Growth isn’t just about hiring—it’s about ensuring your current team is positioned to drive impact. You shouldn’t be using a chainsaw or mandating that every department must reduce staffing by 10%. Strategically recalibrating means assessing what parts of the organization create the most significant impact and using that to inform decisions.

I worked with a client who had been focused on aggressive hiring after the pandemic to have the staff they needed to serve their customers. The impact of their talent acquisition function was consequential. The next year, the need to staff up decreased substantially. They also faced revenue headwinds. Reducing their talent acquisition staff numbers while growing their regional management staff produced the realignment they needed. The realignment was nuanced.

  • Operational Efficiency: Where can you simplify processes, remove redundancies, or reallocate resources to improve execution without adding complexity? Engage the people closest to the work. A company was looking to achieve around $6mil in savings. Rather than simply having the executive team determine the savings opportunities, they established a process for the entire employee base to submit potential opportunities for savings. Finance led the vetting process for the ideas, their reasonableness, and impact. Rather than $6mil in savings, the company achieved over $20mil.
  • Strategic Focus: Do you need to rethink yours?Recalibrating requires clear prioritization—focusing only on what moves the business forward. But businesses should look beyond just revenue or EBIDTA.  Will an enhanced customer experience be the key?  Will it be creating the infrastructure that was put on the back burner during your last sprint towards aggressive bottom line results?
  • Cultural Alignment: Change—even strategic recalibration—can unsettle teams. Are you effectively communicating why these shifts are happening and how they set the organization up for success? Even the word recalibration can create negative perceptions. Think like the people being impacted by the cultural alignment. How would it feel to be in their shoes?  What questions would it raise?  What concerns would they have? Even senior leadership teams with the best intentions aren’t always good at communicating about change.
  • Financial Positioning: Scaling too fast can create risk. Are you balancing short-term financial discipline with long-term investment in the right growth levers? Consider various scenarios and their implications.

Recalibration is Not a Retreat

If you’re reorganizing, restructuring, or even pulling back in certain areas, don’t mistake it for a retreat. It’s a recalibration. And if done right, it puts you in a position to move faster, execute better, and grow stronger when the time is right.

Your Next Move:

The most effective leaders design for the future while managing the present. If you’re making structural changes now—or considering them—how are you ensuring they set you up for real growth next quarter, next year, and beyond?

We’re working with clients right now who are doing the same. Let’s talk about how to balance today’s realities with tomorrow’s opportunities.

Schedule a conversation to explore how strategic organizational design can fuel your next stage of growth.

The Org Chart vs. Reality

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Why Work Frequently Gets Done in the Hallways and How Smart Leaders Leverage That

Let’s be honest: Your beautifully structured org chart doesn’t really tell the whole story. It shows a neat hierarchy of who reports to whom, but it doesn’t reflect how work really gets done. We’ve all heard the saying “final decisions aren’t made in meetings”.  They don’t get made within your formal org chart either. They happen in impromptu hallway conversations, side chats, and text messages between the people who actually get things done.

The Invisible Edge: Informal Networks Run Your Business

Many leaders assume that because they have the right roles on paper, their organization must be functioning efficiently. But organizations aren’t machines—they’re ecosystems. People rely on relationships, not job descriptions, to get things done. When leaders ignore this reality, they make bad decisions, promote the wrong people, and fail to see where bottlenecks really exist.

The Fix: Map the Real Power Networks

Instead of relying on the org chart, leaders need to map their organization’s real networks. These are the relationships people use to get key questions answered, find the information they need to do their jobs, influence the direction and decisions of the company, and cut through the unnecessary noise. Mapping networks means identifying three important players in your organization:

  • Influencers – Not just senior leaders, but the people who others go to for advice and problem-solving. This will tell you who are really seen as trusted, knowledgeable, and able to make things happen.
  • Connectors – Those who bridge departments and functions, ensuring ideas and information flow. Many of the challenges your organization is facing today are too complex for a single silo or function to solve them. Connectors will help you move to the future. A decision that was to be made by a highly visible project team I was co-leading was made completely outside the project, by a key stakeholder influencing the CEO. He had no formal role on the project but had a very strong relationship with the CEO.
  • Hidden Bottlenecks – The unintentional, and sometimes intentional, gatekeepers who slow down progress. They may be the only person or a small handful of people who knows how to do something or understands a core technology. Or, they can be the people who feel they have the most to lose as the company evolves or transforms. They may be stuck in doing something the same way as they have for years, even though technology or new approaches are far more effective.

Once you identify these players, you now need to compare them to the formal organization and decide how to better align the two.

By balancing formal structure with an understanding of these real-world dynamics, you’ll create more agile, adaptive organizations that don’t just look good on paper—but actually perform.

 

Stop Fixing What’s Broken—Start Building What’s Next

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The Future of Your Organization Isn’t in the Repair Shop

Every December, leaders gather around boardroom tables to discuss “what’s not working.” The structure is too slow, the teams aren’t aligned, and change is happening too fast. The solution? Another reorg. But here’s the problem: too many organizations operate like mechanics—constantly patching things up instead of designing something built for the future.

Provocative Point: If your 2025 strategy still revolves around fixing inefficiencies instead of reimagining what’s possible, you’re already behind. Incremental change isn’t enough when the world is shifting at full speed.

Solution: Instead of a “tweak-and-fix” mindset, adopt a “design for scale” approach. Focus on building an organizational structure that’s fluid, adaptable, and driven by purpose—not just efficiency. This means fewer silos, more cross-functional collaboration, and leadership that’s actually empowered to make decisions. Start asking: What structure will help us seize opportunities we haven’t even considered yet?

Building Resilience in Organizational Structures

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Because Fighting Fires Isn’t a Sustainable Strategy

 

Let’s face it: crises are no longer the exception—they’re the rule. As a matter of fact, we should stop treating them like crises. Whether it’s market disruptions, supply chain issues, or your top talent walking out the door, the ability to bounce back is what separates the winners from the also-rans. But here’s the kicker: you can’t build resilience by waiting for disruption to strike. You need to bake it into your organization from the start.

So, how do you create resilient teams and processes that won’t buckle at the first sign of trouble? Hint: It’s not about having a Plan B—it’s about designing your entire structure to pivot on a dime. Think about redundancy, flexibility, and decision-making.

Build redundancy into your teams

No, this doesn’t mean stockpiling talent like canned goods for a rainy day. It’s about cross-training your people so when one person’s out, another can step in without missing a beat. A resilient team doesn’t depend on one rock star—it’s a well-oiled machine that can keep humming, no matter what.

  • Example: Backup leadership roles– Identify and train high potential talent who can step up during a crisis. At a minimum, the head of departments or functions that are strategically critical  should have a designated “second-in-command” who’s familiar with the strategic vision and decision-making process and can step in when needed. There’s a secondary benefit to this, too. The second in command becomes succession ready.
  • Example: Skill-sharing initiatives– Create an internal skill-sharing program where team members regularly teach each other their core responsibilities. This ensures knowledge transfer and reduces the impact of key person dependency.

Design processes that flex, not snap

Rigid processes work until they don’t. Disruption hits, and suddenly, the entire workflow comes to a screeching halt. Instead, create processes that allow for flexibility—ones that can be scaled up, down, or sideways based on real-time needs. Think of your processes like bamboo: strong but bendy.

  • Example: Scalable project management– Adopt agile project management methods, such as sprints or Kanban boards, that allow teams to quickly pivot priorities or reallocate resources as needed without losing momentum.
  • Example: Adaptive resource allocation– Implement a flexible resource allocation system that allows teams to shift budget, personnel, or time toward high-priority projects during times of crisis, without waiting for formal approval cycles. Small organizations do this out of necessity. For example, one of my clients has significant events they need to deliver for during a couple of months each year. They can’t add staff for these events and they are important to their client relationships.  Flexible resourcing allows them to bring all hands-on deck during that cycle while still serving other client needs.
  • Example: Modular workflows– Develop modular workflows that can be quickly adjusted or restructured based on changing conditions, ensuring that only the affected parts of a process need to be altered, rather than the entire system.

Build decision-making power at every level

If your team has to run every decision up the flagpole during a crisis, you’re already toast. Resilient organizations empower employees at all levels to make decisions quickly. Trust your people to act in the best interests of the company—after all, you hired them for a reason, right?

  • Example: Decentralized decision-making– Roll out a decision-rights matrix that clearly outlines what decisions can be made at each level, especially in high-pressure situations. Differentiate the decisions to be made – strategic big bet decisions that are infrequent and significant, cross-functional decisions, and high frequency/low risk decisions that can be delegated. Push down decisions as far as possible while weighing risk and frequency.  This reduces bottlenecks and encourages quicker, more informed decisions.
  • Example: Crisis-response training– Hold scenario-based training sessions where leaders and their teams are tasked with making rapid decisions during simulated disruption.  Provide feedback and make it a fun competition. This builds confidence in decentralized decision-making and improves response times.

Resilience isn’t just about survival. It’s about thriving when everyone else is scrambling. And if you’re not building it into your organizational structure now, well, good luck “winging it” the next time the market goes sideways.

How to Design an Agile Organizational Structure

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Because Standing Still is So Last Century

 

In today’s business landscape, staying stagnant is a death sentence. The organizations thriving right now? They’re nimble, they’re agile, and they’re ready to pivot faster than a start-up launching a new app. The key to agility starts with your organizational structure.

Gone are the days of rigid hierarchies where decisions trickle down like molasses. What you need is a structure that doesn’t buckle under the weight of change but bends and flexes with it. Think fewer “command-and-control” towers and more “empowered decision-making” hubs.

Building an agile organization is particularly challenging issue for my rapid-growth life science clients. They feel they’re living the “changing tires while going 85 mph” saying. Here’s some of what I’m encouraging them to do:

3 Steps Closer to an Agile Organization

Flatten the Hierarchy

Let’s be real: no one wants to wait weeks for approvals that could’ve been done over Slack in 30 seconds. Empower your teams with the authority to make decisions quickly, within their domains. Of course, we’re not suggesting anarchy (though that would be fun to watch); clear accountability is still crucial, but trust your people to handle more, and watch them rise to the occasion.

Get started:

  1. Eliminate unnecessary approval layers: Identify and remove at least two approval steps in your current process. This will force faster decision-making and create a culture of ownership at all levels.
  2. Implement a “skip-level” feedback system: Encourage direct communication between front-line employees and senior leaders to eliminate bottlenecks. This bypasses the need for middle management to relay every message and keeps leadership more informed.
  3. Create small, autonomous teams: Restructure departments into cross-functional, self-sufficient teams responsible for their own goals. Give them authority to execute without constant executive oversight.

Embrace Cross-Functional Teams

Why does IT always have to sit in one silo while marketing builds a wall around theirs? Break down the barriers. Create teams that bring together diverse perspectives and skill sets. This fosters innovation and allows your organization to solve problems from all angles. Plus, it’ll stop the “that’s-not-my-department” excuse we’ve all heard one too many times.

Get started:

  1. Mix up your meetings: Mandate that every project meeting include members from at least three different departments with a stake in the outcome. This fosters diverse perspectives and cuts down on siloed thinking.
  2. Launch pilot cross-functional projects: Choose two critical projects and form cross-functional teams to execute them from start to finish. Track the efficiency gains and use them as case studies for expanding the model.
  3. Reward collaboration, not just individual results: Incentivize employees based on the success of the team rather than individual performance alone. This shift in rewards drives teamwork and encourages knowledge sharing across functions.

Prioritize Communication (Seriously)

Agility isn’t just about the org chart—it’s about how information flows. Encourage open, honest communication at all levels. And not just the “nice talk” that comes out of a company-wide email. Real communication happens when leaders listen, employees feel heard, and feedback is acted upon. It’s like therapy for your business, but cheaper.

Get started:

  1. Hold daily 15-minute stand-ups: Require all teams to hold short daily meetings to quickly align on priorities and progress. This promotes transparency and keeps everyone connected, even in fast-moving environments.
  2. Introduce a “one-question” leadership check-in: Leaders should ask one simple, yet powerful question weekly: “What’s one thing I don’t know that I should?” This opens up critical conversations that can uncover hidden issues or opportunities.
  3. Use internal social platforms to promote open dialogue: Encourage the use of tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams for real-time, informal communication across all levels. This helps break down barriers between leadership and teams while fostering a more connected culture.

Remember, agility is less about changing your structure every six months and more about building a structure that’s flexible, adaptable, and ready to tackle whatever’s coming next (spoiler: it’s probably something disruptive). Because standing still? That’s so last century.

Who’s Going Back to the Office? Who *Should* Be Going Back?

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It’s usually not a simple choice – for companies or for individuals. Companies are making very different decisions. If you’re unsure who should go back to the office, how many days per week, and to do what type of work… here’s a bit of help.

Companies are making very different decisions.

Many people are thinking about being back in the office and what post-pandemic work life looks like. They’re asking questions like “why do I need to be in the office? When do I need to be back in the office? Why aren’t we all back in the office?”

The answers seem as varied as the people asking them. We are hearing weekly what different companies are doing, and the decisions are far from consistent.

  • The largest 4-day work week pilot to date is underway in the UK. For six months, 3,300 people, in 70 companies, across a wide variety of industries are testing the feasibility of a 4-day work week. During the program, workers receive 100% of their pay for working only 80% of their usual week, in exchange for promising to maintain 100% of their productivity. Joe O’Connor, CEO of 4 Day Week Global says “More and more companies are recognizing that the new frontier for competition is quality of life, and that reduced-hour, productivity-focused working is the vehicle to give them that competitive edge,”
  • Elon Musk made news because of a leaked internal memo to Tesla workersin which he says “Anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in the office for a minimum (and I mean *minimum*) of 40 hours per week or depart Tesla… not a remote branch office unrelated to the job duties.’ His reasoning seems to be that by not being in the office at least 40-hours per week, you are “phoning it in.”
  • Akamai went in the opposite direction. Full disclosure – I’ve had the privilege of working with them several times. They announced that as of May 2022, 95% of their nearly 10,000 employees around the world have complete flexibility to decide whether they work at home, in the office, or both. In making this decision, they analyzed all roles in the company against the same criteria, regardless of location, and determined 95% could be done with complete flexibility. Flexibility has been part of their culture for years but never to this extent. The analysis bolstered their belief that employees should decide what is best for them.
So, who’s doing what?  A Robin survey of more than 10,000 offices globally found that:
  • Nearly 20 percent of American office workers are back one day a week
  • About 10 percent are back two days a week
  • Just five percent are back three days a week
  • Even fewer are back four or five days a week
  • More than 50 percent do not use the office consistently every week.

The idea of everyone needing to be in the office or at the same site goes back to the industrial and pre-digital work environment. Materials were most efficiently used in a single location. Communication happened face-to-face or by phone. In my early consulting career, I worked for a firm where a large percentage of the consultants coded all day – onsite, in person. The technology was different then so there really wasn’t another option. However, these people spent 90% of their time in their cubes, working individually. With today’s digital environments, you could easily see that being in-person would probably be of little impact on their work.

Recent research finds that working collaboratively face-to-face (F2F) has an impact on creativity. A study of nearly 1,500 engineers in five different countries were randomly paired to create product ideas F2F or via video call. The study showed video conferencing had a negative impact on idea generation but did not make a difference in the ability to critically evaluate creative ideas. Since creativity begins with new or adaptive ideas, face-to-face could be critical to your innovation and problem-solving strategies.

What’s the right model for how we work? Different companies will have different needs, jobs will have different needs, people will have different needs. And, that’s a new way of thinking.  Many roles are much more nuanced than the coder example I shared above, so the choice is not that simple. It will take months, probably years before we understand the benefits and drawbacks of any model. At the end of the day, the answer will probably be, it depends.

“It depends” is not a great response for people seeking answers.  So, here’s a little help figuring things out. If you and your team are still deciding how to manage the Great Transition, you may want to start with looking at the nature of the work. Even if your organization is committed to a consistent hybrid model (i.e., everyone in the office 2 days per week), it may help you determine how to use those in-office days vs remote days.

You can start with a simple 2×3 matrix that allows you to map tasks to three task categories – creative, analytical, or transactional/process — and the degree of interactivity associated with the task – is it primarily individual or collaborative, and the amount of your time you spend on each task.

For example, if I am analyzing the data in a spreadsheet, it is primarily an individual task. If I am one of several people brainstorming a new solution, working collaboratively on this analysis will generate better results. Analyzing different solutions may work as well remotely as FTF depending on the nature of what’s being analyzed.  Also, creative and analytical processes can be co-dependent and concurrent, so working collaboratively, FTF on this analysis might generate better results. Think of this as a continuum between Creative and Transactional.

Here’s an example, below:

We’re working with leaders, teams and organizations right now helping them be successful in the new world of work through customizable programs and consulting engagements.  How can we help you?