Many organizations struggle with complex structures that threaten their existence. Organization design goes beyond hierarchies, spans, layers, and reporting structures. Great organization design is strategic, agile, accountable, continuous, integrated with the business, and promotes clarity, productivity, and growth.

Good design leads to innovation, success, and breakthroughs, while poor design leads to stagnation, conflict, and turnover, hindering organizational growth and success.

This SuperClass offers a valuable opportunity to learn about Organization Design. It involves an immersive simulation centered around a fictional North American pharmaceutical chain called Arrow Care. As a member of Arrow Care's HR team, your role is to transform the company's organization structure. You will identify opportunities to streamline hierarchy, workflows, and procedures to align them with the current business needs.

During the simulation, you will collaborate with internal Arrow Care partners and expert consultants from the Josh Bersin Company to understand the challenges faced by Arrow Care. The objective of the SuperClass is to envision the future of the company, design a solution to work towards that future, and implement the new organization structure. Additionally, you will acquire tools and ideas that can be applied to your everyday work.

ApproachOnline social learning, teams of 30-50
Learning Time6-8 hours
Duration5 weeks. Next starting: October 11, 2023
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Key Questions You’ll Explore in this Program

What is the three-phase methodology for organization design consulting?

What are key strategies for analyzing data to pull out actionable insights?

Why is a clear understanding of each stakeholder's level of influence and impact key to effective stakeholder management?

What is a Situation, Challenge, and Resolution statement and how do you craft it?

How can the N-minus-1 Model help support a reorganization initiative?

Why are process flows key to defining an organization structure?

What is demand planning and how do you analyze resource workload?

How do you model and create a new org chart?

Why are testing and piloting critical components of an implementation approach?

Why are change management and post go-live metrics key to the success of an initiative?

Field Manuals

The Organization Design SuperClass is made up of 10 Field Manuals (our version of an online module). Each one contains a variety of types of content and social exercises culminating in a mini-project, reflection, or debate. Each Field Manual will take you between 30-45 minutes to complete but you can jump on and off at your own pace, as often as you’d like. The deeper learning happens in the discussions with your fellow learners so be sure to check in on the conversations regularly.

The Problem

You will be introduced to fundamentals of organization design from its beginnings to the challenges facing the industry today. As part of the simulation, you will learn about the challenges Arrow Care is facing with its current organization design. You will begin gathering the information you’ll need to redesign Arrow Care's Organization Structure.

The Data

Getting good data about the organization and the existing design is essential to solving the problem. This Field Manual looks at the process of data gathering, through interviews with the project sponsor and research into Arrow Care’s current approach to organizational design.

The Stakeholders

Managing stakeholders and understanding their expectations is an essential part of any org design project. In this Field Manual, you’ll learn how to do this essential work through listening and building a stakeholder map.

The Plan

Once we have the data and information we need, we can begin to build a plan. A Situation, Challenge, Resolution (SCR) document is a great tool at this stage. In this Field Manual, you will learn what an S-C-R is and how to craft one.

The Solution

With a strong understanding of Arrow Care L&D’s core challenges around organizational design, you will begin to develop a solution. In this Field Manual, we look at a model that can help us get started: the N-1 Model.

The Process Flows

Once we understand the work that needs to be performed by the future organization, we can begin to sequence the work and align it to teams. Process flows are critical tools for this phase, helping us see how the organization will come to life.

The Demand Plan

The demand planning process shows you how to calculate the quantity and scope of jobs for everyone in the future Arrow Care L&D organization. The work you’ve done on the N-1 model and process flows perfectly sets you up to do this work with the greatest degree of confidence.

The New Organizational Chart

Leveraging the foundational work, you have put in place in the program, you will navigate the process of creating a new organizational chart. You will identify and scope the complexity of work and map individuals to specific roles of the new organization.

The Go-live

The implementation of a well-designed solution is just the beginning. Setting success criteria, engaging stakeholders, and driving user adoption are when the organization comes to life. This Field Manual highlights the need for testing and change management to prepare for transitioning to the new organizational model.

The Go-live Metrics

Now that the solution is live, and you will discover the importance of establishing and monitoring post go-live metrics. You will also get the chance to analyze these metrics and make decisions based on the progress between go-live and 60 days afterward

Featured Voices

Josh Bersin

Global Industry Analyst, CEO of The Josh Bersin Company, and Dean of the Josh Bersin Academy

Bill Pelster

Co-Founder Josh Bersin Company of the Josh Bersin Company

Andy Biladeau

SVP of HR Advisory Services at the Josh Bersin Company

Kathi Enderes

SVP of Research at the Josh Bersin Company

The Organization Design SuperClass