Organizational Design Is Not an Org Chart

**Tullio Siragusa** (0:01)
Welcome back to The Bliss Business Podcast. I'm Tullio Siragusa. Today, we're talking about organizational design, because in one of the most misunderstood levels in business, it's where you can have a direct impact on bliss.

**Tullio Siragusa** (0:12)
And today, we're going to talk about organizational design.
Most companies think organizational design means a few boxes and names in it with titles and an org chart. An org chart tells you who reports to whom, but organizational design means a few boxes and names in it with titles and an org chart.
An org chart tells you who reports to whom, but organizational design tells you how work actually gets done and how work moves. You can have a beautiful org chart and still have a messy company. People can be talented, committed, hardworking, and still struggle because the system is poorly developed. Because the system is poorly designed. Decisions bounced around, ownership is unclear, teams duplicate efforts, meetings multiply, priorities compete. Everyone looks busy, but progress feels uneven. Does any of this resonate with you? Sound familiar? Maybe you work for a company like this. Maybe you're working for a company like this right now. The problem is not the people, which is where everybody usually points to. I need to change my leadership. I need to make some structural reshuffling. It's not the people. The problem is usually the design, the organizational design. If Bliss is the goal, the organization has to be designed for flow, not just hierarchy. This is where design thinking gives us a major advantage. In design thinking, we map the experience of the user and inside of an organization, the users are made up of teams. So one of the most important leadership question is, what is it like to get work done here? Not what is it like to work here? What is it like to get work done here? That's the key question. If the answer is slow, political, confusing or exhausting, the design is creating friction and friction is the enemy of business. If the answer is focused, collaborative and fast, the design is creating flow. And if you're one of those companies, congratulations. Bliss rises when flow rises. Here's the mistake a lot of leaders make. They see friction and immediately start moving people around. They change titles, they reshuffle reporting lines, they create a new org chart. But if they do not fix the decisions and how those decisions are made and how accountability works, they just move the same dysfunction into a new structure. So here's a better sequence. First, define the outcomes. You wouldn't get into a car and just drive around, sit still, see without knowing where you're going, would you? I mean, unless you're driving a really nice Ferrari convertible, you might just get in the car and drive around with no reason at all than just to enjoy driving around. But for the most part, you get into a car because you want to get somewhere. So you're defining the outcome, I've got to get somewhere. In business, it's no different. Define the outcome. What are the few business outcomes that matter most right now? Then second, you need to define the rights. Who makes which decisions? It doesn't have to be an individual, it could be a pod or a team. But who makes those decisions? Who must be consulted in making decisions? And who must be informed? Third, define the operating rhythms. What is the weekly rhythms for progress, decisions and escalations? Is there a check-in, a stand-up? Something that allows you to check progress to see who might need what? And then fourth, define roles and responsibilities. Then assign those roles to support the design you just created. Now, most organizations do this backwards. They create the roles and then work around the roles. The roles are designed to support the outcome and the rhythms and the processes in place. This is the sequence. Outcomes, decision rights, rhythms, then roles. Now, let's make this tangible. Say there's a growth initiative that includes marketing, sales, product and customer success. In many companies, everyone is involved, but nobody truly owns the outcome. Marketing says, leads were generated, sales says, leads are weak, product says, the offering is not finalized, and customer success says, the handoff is messy. This creates activity without ownership. In fact, it creates friction. And what is friction? The enemy of business. A better design includes one accountable owner for the outcome, or a pod or team accountable for the outcome, if you're a self-managed organization.
Define functional contributors. Weekly cross-functional rhythms. A visible scorecard tied to outcomes. How are we progressing? Is there a scorecard? Red, green, yellow flag? Percentage of completion? How are we tracking that? And then clear rules for escalation and trade-offs. Now, when you have that in place, the systems can move. Bliss is structural clarity. It is what people experience when the environment makes it easy to contribute and hard to hide out. Good organizational design reduces emotional friction as well. People stop guessing, stop waiting. People stop defending turf. And people start solving problems. This also connects directly to customer experience. Customer experience is the downstream result of internal design. If internal handoff is broken, customers will feel that. If decisions are slow, customers feel that. If ownership is unclear, customers feel it. If teams do not trust each other, customers will not trust you as a brand either. You cannot promise trust and responsiveness in the marketplace and then internally have a design that produces delay and confusion. It needs to be alignment. So here's a tangible move for this week if you're interested. Pick one cross-functional priority and map it on one single page. Use these five prompts. What is the outcome? Who owns the outcome? Who contributes? What decisions are required? And what is the weekly rhythm to support this process? That one page will map out and expose your friction points. Because if you can't clearly answer those questions, that's friction. It is also going to show you whether there's an issue with talent or design. Most of the time, it's design. Bliss grows when design creates flow. Bliss grows when people know what they own and how to move forward together. Bliss grows when the system supports trust. Instead of forcing people to fight the structure. Thank you for listening to The Bliss Business Podcast. Next week, we're going to talk about internal alignment and why what you promised the market has to match how the company operates. Until then, stay blissful.