Leaders as Designers

Leaders as Designers

Welcome to our next module. Teams fit within the broader organizational design, and organizational design is a never-ending process. You can return to the four disciplines of organizational health from The Advantage -- but now we need to get into the details. If you're building out a start-up, get the foundations right from the start. If you're working with an established organization, you can focus on adjustments within your zone of influence. Even if you're focusing on licensing out your innovation, organizational design is important to you. You need to understand the infrastructure supporting your work and the infrastructures of the principals engaging with your IP. 

Watch: Module Intro (2m23s)

Introduction

In this module, you will: 

• Gain a foundation in organizational design
• Think in 5T
• Evaluate the staffing of your venture and consider alternatives, including crowdsourcing and automation
• Challenge perspectives on hiring

To-Dos

• Consider whether you have any go-to frameworks for building an organization. When you thought about a new job, did you consider how the organization was designed? You will forevermore.
• Read/Watch/Reflect: on the material above and below. Consider the Additional Resources as you have time and need.
• Submit a drawing, photo, link, or interactive graphic (when I was working with Cisco, they had aa great interactive drill down and scope up org chart tool) of your current or intended org chart. Tracked as a Module Activity -- enter your slide # here.
• Take this anonymous quiz as one of the module activities -- save your answers for discussion during our sync time.
• Draft at least one idea for discussion during our synchronous discussion. Recall the journal/playbooks assignment.
• Add questions as they arise in the Leaders as Designers Discussion (as well as your resource contribution)
• Come to our synchronous time with additional ideas about leveraging a staffing playbook to move your invention to innovation. Feel free to adjust the topic to something more appropriate at this moment in your innovation's roadmap. It could be about motivation/incentives, etc.

Big Picture Organizational Design

Watch: Organization Charts - 2D simplifications of the information flow in your organization (2m57s)

Read: 10 Org Chart Styles We Admire (And the One We Use at Buffer)

Now is a great time to submit a drawing, photo, link of your current org chart (assuming you're at that stage) or of the chart you'd like to build out when the time is right.

We see in 3D. We need to Think in 5T

The org chart is a two-dimensional outline of your organization (that's one way to think about an org chart). We see in 3D. We need to think in 5T. The link below will give you the details, but keep in mind that the 5Ts are good for organizational assessment (what's going on here?), organizational design (how can we get this done?), making sure that things don't fall through the cracks (someone is pitching to you -- have they really covered everything you need to know?) After you read the basics, listen to an example, you can search my website for other applications of the 5Ts. Something will fit your invention to innovation path or help you in your current organization. The more you practice using this framework, the more "systems savvy" you'll have. I'll post links to a variety of publications below.

Read: Thinking in 5T

Watch: Remote Work from a Thinking in 5T Perspective (4m29sec)

Multimodal Staffing

Time to shift gears. You've thought about the big-picture design of your organization. How will you staff?

Watch: Multimodal Staffing (6m17s)

(Hyperloop One, mentioned as a competitor to HyperloopTT, shutdown Dec 2023. HyperloopTT has a variety of projects in play, though the Toulouse track has been dismantled.)

Watch: Kickstarting our Conversation on Hiring/Engagement (4m41s)

Additional Resources - wide variety focused on organizational systems (the mix of Talent, Technology, & Technique)