A fictional company announced a new organizational structure Wednesday to resolve the confusion introduced by the organizational structure it announced last Wednesday, describing the change as the next phase of a carefully considered transformation.
The previous reorganization combined several teams to reduce handoffs. Employees subsequently discovered that the combined teams still had different responsibilities, different systems and different ideas about who should approve requests. The new reorganization will separate those responsibilities while preserving the benefits of having briefly combined them.
"We are building on what we learned," said chief executive Adrian Cole. "One of the things we learned is that people need to know who they report to."
A revised chart shows employees reporting to their former managers through a newly created coordination layer. Leadership said the layer would improve accountability by providing another place to ask where accountability sits. It will be staffed once the company identifies employees who are not already coordinating.
Team names have changed again. The Customer Experience Enablement group is now Service Operations, except for the portion that was formerly Service Operations and is becoming Customer Success Support. An internal glossary will explain the distinctions, with owners to be assigned after the transition.
Employees have been assured that their day-to-day work will remain unchanged. Several said this was reassuring because their day-to-day work currently consists of finding out which team owns the work. They expect the new arrangement to provide considerable continuity.
The company has asked staff to avoid updating shared documents until the structure is final. Staff were previously asked to update those documents immediately so the old structure would be reflected everywhere. The documents now contain both sets of instructions, which leadership described as a useful record of the journey.
Managers will hold listening sessions to understand how employees are experiencing the change. Questions about why the change was necessary will be collected separately from questions about how to implement it, allowing the company to address the second category without becoming distracted by the first.
Cole said success would be measured by faster decisions, clearer ownership and fewer organizational announcements. The first milestone is a company-wide announcement explaining how the company plans to make fewer organizational announcements. A draft has been shared with fourteen reviewers.
At publication time, the new chart had received initial approval. Final approval was pending confirmation of which newly reorganized team had authority to approve it.