Optimizing Organizational Design for Growth

Challenge

Over 20 years, a federal medical and scientific research agency’s scope and budget had grown significantly; however, it had not updated its organizational structure to align with its new requirements. To fulfill its mission, the agency requested our organizational design experts to establish a strategy and develop a plan to centralize shared services, reorganize research management and funding bodies, and ensure effectiveness in staffing structures.

Discovery & Design

Our team conducted an extensive review of the current organizational structure, solicited feedback from key stakeholders across the organization, and benchmarked leading research organization’s functions. We established design principles and worked with the leadership team to develop end-state functions and an operating model to guide the organization layer designs. Through a combination of leadership workshops and individual leadership meetings, our team drafted a new organizational structure including roles, responsibilities, and decision rights. Further, our team developed a communication and change management plan along with tools, templates, and trainings to shepherd the organization through implementation.

Driving Impact

  • Reduced number of individuals directly reporting to head of organization by 40%
  • Streamlined senior management into 6 distinct units, reducing complexity and clearly aligning core functions
  • Increased staff accountability through the design and codification of objectives and key results (OKRs) and decision rights

Capabilities