Everybody knows that large organizations can not be run the same way as small ones. They require large numbers of people to work collectively to a common goal, therefore they need a lot of structure, rules, processes and operating procedures in order to function. However, at one point in the life of the company, this vast infrastructure that supports the organizational effort becomes too heavy. People feel disenfranchised by the bureaucracy and politics that come with such an approach and the energy level decreases. The organization is mired in internal conflict, becomes arrogant and self-important and loses touch with market and members. Changes are resisted, the organization becomes reactive or even inert. Adaptation is a challenge. To add to the pain, the administration becomes not only ineffective but also expensive, with layers of management perceived to be a burden on both cost and flexibility. Reducing the headcount helps, for a while, but if the organization is not reformed from the inner core, this will just take pressure and control out of the system, without putting leadership and alignment in. As a consequence productivity suffers.
We do not advocate that all processes and rules are necessarily bad, quite the opposite, but there is a big difference between an organization that is run by its processes and one that is run for its processes.
We can help you understand where the problem lies, which processes are redundant or dangerous and how to reshape the key ones to bring the spirit back into the organization. We can also help you turn the management philosophy from push to pull, from rules to values, from predictability to adaptability.