Published on 23 Oct 2019 in agile
How do you end up with a resilient organisational structure? The way you approach design plays a key role in the strength and suitability of what you’re creating. An iterative, trial and error process consistently delivers the best results whether we’re talking sports cars or digital applications. The same is true for organisational structures.
Emergent design is how Mother Nature produces structures through the process of evolution. It starts with the most basic structure and with each iteration, unsuitable versions are removed and incrementally the most suitable form for the specific environment emerges.
In contrast, a predetermined design means designing a structure upfront, in other words creating a model to move towards. The model does not need to be final and it usually allows for big changes relatively quickly as there’s a clear blueprint for how things are set up.
In organisations, startups begin with the equivalent of nature’s initial basic structure. As they grow they have the opportunity for their organisational designs to gradually emerge, influenced by their values and principles. Think Spotify, Google or Netflix.
Large corporations by their nature have existing structures and are a different beast. Emergence of a new design can be triggered by identifying new principles. The existing structure evolves by applying these principles at all levels, requiring them to have been internalised by the employees conditioned to the old structure.
If we recognise that emergent design consistently produces the most robust results, why are implementations of predetermined structures so prevalent in large organisations?
I can see how predetermined designs are the most attractive option for enterprises — whether they’re influenced by frameworks like SAFe, or home-made structures (i.e. structures developed by an in-house or external team). They accelerate widespread change by providing a model to move towards, sometimes called a target end state or future state.
Of course you can iterate on and modify a predetermined design, so that in the end a more robust structure emerges. The downside of this as opposed to starting where you are is that there will inevitably be fat to trim and you may miss out on innovating a model that truly fits your own unique situation.
Emergent design by its nature is uncertain, you don’t know what it will look like in 5 years time. It’s also harder to implement, as rather than telling employees what they need to do to fit a predetermined structure you need them to internalise the principles and shape their own area.
A myriad of factors will influence a company’s decision. Whether emergent or predetermined, if a company has identified a need to change and is taking action then that’s a positive thing. Whichever route an organisation goes down, the core capability is to continuously learn and adapt. Regardless of the starting point, with this continuous loop in place we will clearly see evolution.