Sometimes a process, department, or entire business needs restructuring. Sometimes it needs a transformation. How can you know which is required?

These are the differences:

Restructuring:
o Service delivery is delayed or off-target;
o Some team members are overloaded and yet others don’t have quite enough to fill their plates;
o There are duplicative efforts across “departments”;
o Modest Growth has changed the needs of those who depend upon the services;
o Changes in expectations call for adapting responses.

Transformation:
o Service delivery has broken down;
o People are very busy, with much of their time consumed by putting out fires;
o What should be complementary efforts instead are competitive ones;
o Significant Growth has overwhelmed the status quo;
o Entirely new needs require different and innovative solutions.

If your business is in a steady state or growing very slowly, you’re not likely to need to restructure or transform for Internal reasons. Which is not to say that you will not be faced, as many businesses have been, with External forces that disrupt or entirely change your market.

If your business is expanding and growing very quickly, odds are that the type of change you’ll need is Transformational. The reality is that What Got You Here….won’t take you there. You’ll need to develop people, improve processes and share better information. To optimize success and continue up the growth ramp, however, also requires strategically rethinking the organization itself:

1. First and foremost, the transformational process must keep the best interests of its clients top of mind. How will the changes being contemplated improve their experience with us?
2. Next, consider how organizational silos can be turned into networked resources. What reconfiguration of roles and responsibilities will have an exponential effect on information flow and the capacity for managing change?
3. Finally, assess how individual strengths can be leveraged and complementary skills of various team members can be aligned into nimble teams. How will you unlock the power of human potential?

Since the Greek philosopher Heraclitus stated around 2500 years ago that “Change is the only constant in life”, time has proven those words to be ever truer with each passing year. As the pace of change accelerates, there are innumerable options for embracing it and making progress. Transformational thinking unlocks the possibilities.

Tempus Maximize!