Structure Design


Management Systems’ organization structure design tools help you create and manage your company’s structure so that it promotes long-term sustainable success and the achievement of your goals.  

Our approach to structure design and management goes beyond just the “boxes” on the page because our research and work with companies over the past 30 years suggests that to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of any structure, there needs to be a focus on what we have termed the three levels of structure:

    • Macro Structure – the boxes on the organization chart and how they are arranged;
    • Micro Structure – how roles and responsibilities are defined, communicated, and reinforced; and
    • Supporting Systems – the processes that are in place to help make the structure “work” (including meetings, information management, planning, performance management, and culture management).

    We can work with you at any and all of these three levels to help you maximize your structure’s effectiveness and efficiency and this work can include:

    • Creating tools and methods to help you communicate and reinforce your company’s macro structure.  This can include evaluating your current organization chart’s effectiveness, working with you to develop an organization chart (and supporting documentation) that clearly identifies roles and reporting relationships, and assisting you in developing methods to effectively communicate and reinforce your company’s macro structure.
    • Enhancing the effectiveness of your micro structure by working with you and your team to develop and effectively use Management Systems’ Key Result Area-Based Role Descriptions.  This tool, used by hundreds of companies over the past 30 plus years, is highly effective in helping each position-holder understand his or her role and responsibilities.  Key Result Area-Based Role Descriptions help focus each person on your team on key drivers of success in their individual roles which, in turn, translates into overall organizational success.
    • Providing you and your team with individual coaching or team-based training on structure design and management.  Management Systems can provide training on our step-by-step approach that can be used by you and your team on an on-going basis to evaluate, design, and effectively manage your organization’s structure.
    • A formal Structure Assessment that provides you with an evaluation of the strengths and limitations of your company’s current structure and our recommendations for possible “alternative structures” that better align with and support the achievement of your long-term goals.  While each Structure Assessment is customized to the specific client’s needs, Management Systems’ Structure Assessment process can include the following:
      • Review of documents – including the current organization chart, job/role descriptions, performance evaluation forms/documents, and the company’s written strategic plan.  The purpose of document review is to help us understand your company’s strategy, your company’s current structure, and the extent to which (at least as it is described in this documentation) your structure currently supports the effective and efficient achievement of your long-term goals.
      • Interviews with selected company personnel to help identify how your structure currently “works” as well as the strengths and limitations of the current structure.  
      • Surveys that are designed to collect information about specific aspects of your company’s macro structure, micro structure, and supporting systems.
      • Workshops with managers/leaders to collect input on structure issues and/or possible alternative structure designs.
      • Identification of your company’s structural strengths and limitations – based on an analysis of the information collected through document review, interviews, surveys, and workshops.  
      • Development of possible alternative macro structures for your company that are aligned with your strategy and support your long-term goals.  
      • Preparation of a report that:
        • Summarizes our findings about your current structure – strengths, limitations, “fit” with your strategy, etc.; 
        • Presents and describes two or more possible alternative macro structures for your company;
        • Evaluates the effectiveness of each structure we present – using Management Systems’ structural design and evaluation criteria;
        • Provides recommendations for the micro structure and supporting systems needed to support effective implementation and management of proposed macro structures.

    Our role in completing the structural assessment is to evaluate your company’s current structure and provide you with alternatives that address the structure issues you are facing and that will contribute to enhanced performance.  We then work with you to select the “best” alternative for your company and develop a plan for its implementation.