Frequently Asked Questions

A restructure is when the leaders of an organisation make changes to the size of the workforce (the number of jobs), the hierarchy (which roles report to which leader) and job design (the responsibilities of each person), in order to meet the challenges that the organisation is facing.   Restructures are sometimes also called ‘right-sizing’, ‘downsizing’, ‘realigning’ or ‘spill and fill’.

We define Organisational Design as the transformational leadership capability of shaping an organisation's architecture to better achieve its objectives by building a nimble organisational structure that provides clarity to people on their responsibilities, and ensures work is done in the most effective and efficient way.  

The SysCAP™ Approach provides a best-practice, systematic process for leading organisational design.

The world is constantly changing, and organisations are faced with cost-pressures, changing customer needs, launching new services and products and retiring the old, implementing new technology, capitalizing on growth opportunities, and so on. 

Organisational restructures are a necessary part of every organisation’s journey, and as leaders build their capability in leading organisational design, they are able to consistently create adaptive, dynamic and healthy organisations.

There will be a negative impact on productivity and service delivery, and sooner or later customers will feel the impact.  Smart, marketable people leave the workforce leaving gaps in knowledge and capability. Culture and engagement is damaged, and getting the structure ‘wrong’ often means having to restructure again in the near future. Poor restructuring affects the credibility of leaders.  

The name is a combination of the first three letters in the words “systematic” and “capability.” The SysCAP™ Approach is a systematic, adaptable, repeatable process for leading organisational restructures, and builds the organisational design capability and confidence of leaders. 

The implementation of a new structure often looks quite different between organisations.  For example, some organisations have unionised workforces and need to follow specific procedures for consulting on and implementing a structure. Other organisations have job grading systems and require the jobs in the new structure to undergo job evaluation.  Many organisations have specific policies and approaches on how they handle movements between roles, recruitment and even redundancies, which would shape the implementation approach.  

Design Thinking is at the heart of many organisations’ service and product design.  Design Thinking puts the user at the centre of design, and is very effective in reaching superior solutions, lowered costs and risks, and employee buy-in. 

Organisational design is the next frontier of design thinking and  SysCAP™ leads the way by applying design thinking to restructuring. SysCAP™ utilises ‘codesign’, which is a structured way of involving staff and key stakeholders in the organisational design process. 

Like design thinking when it was introduced, most leaders haven’t experienced organisational design first-hand or had training in how it works successfully. SysCAP™ provides systematic, step-by-step guidance to leaders which builds their confidence and capability. 

It means thinking through how the work the organisation does will change into the future, what these ‘new’ areas of work will be and how best to group (architect) and organise the work. 

If one jumps straight into drawing up a new structure without ‘rearchitecting’ the work’ you will find that post-restructure people would have moved around but everyone will go back to doing the same work in the same way as before. When you realise that the restructure hasn’t made any lasting change, you might feel that you need to restructure again, causing an endless cycle of restructuring.  

A Function Map places all the work that a division/ business unit does on one page.  A current state map shows the work we currently do, whilst the future state map shows the work we will do in the future. Function Maps are the primary tool for ‘rearchitecting the work’ because we are able to see which functions and activities should stop, start and continue, as well as rethink how we have ‘grouped’ functions, which then leads us into considering which functions each team should perform.  

Ways of Working is how a team works together and connects with others.  It’s all about culture, behaviours, collaboration, how decisions are made and how success is defined. 

Ways of Working are the ‘glue’ that turns a static hierarchical structure into a dynamic network of relationships. Ways of Working should lead to connection, belonging, trust, speed, and momentum, all outcomes of successful organisational restructures. 

Organisational structure can only get you so far; assessing and improving Ways of Working is how you build resilience, and ensure the new structure is embedded.  

Silos are teams/ business units/ divisions that have a strong inwards focus. Staff working within a silo typically see little need to share knowledge and resources outside the silo and operate as independently as they possibly can. Attempts by leaders to foster collaboration and cross functional work just doesn’t yield results. 

There is no doubt that silo behaviour has a negative impact on customers, collaboration, innovation and even efficiency. In the SysCAP™ Approach, we guide you on how to avoid silo behaviour by using the Ways of Working quadrants. Well thought-out Ways of Working lead to connection, belonging, trust, speed, and momentum, all outcomes of successful organisational restructures. 

An accountability matrix is a custom-built RASCI tool that helps you think through who is accountable for which tasks, and who is making which decisions. ‘Decision Making’ is one of the 4-quadrants in the SysCAP™ Ways of Working model, which are critical to embedding your new organisational structure.