New Business Book on Organizational Structure is Released

DANBURY, Conn., March 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ "Look at any organization chart and see who's fighting with whom, who's not making objectives, and who has ulcers!" So claims author and organizational expert, Dean Meyer, in his latest book, Principle-based Organizational Structure, from NDMA Publishing.

This is Meyer's eighth book, the culmination of over 30 years of study and practical experiences leading restructuring projects in dozens of companies, non-profit, and government organizations.

Unlike the myriad other books on organizational design, most of which come from a Human Resources perspective, Meyer treats structure as an engineering science. He lays out clear principles and frameworks, and gives executives practical guidance on how to design their own organizations.

The book goes beyond just organization charts. As Meyer explains, "The more an organization lets people specialize, the better they perform. But if organizations aren't great at cross-boundary teamwork, they create 'silo' groups that are self-sufficient. And that, of course, reduces specialization and performance."

At this point, executives reading the book might say, "Ouch!" Teamwork is a familiar problem. Fortunately, Meyer goes on to explain how to build highly effective teamwork across structural boundaries not by conventional teambuilding, but with a practical team-formation process.

Another key difference from traditional approaches is what Meyer calls "the business-within-a-business paradigm." Every job is designed as a small entrepreneurship within the overall business. Among the many benefits is that managers at every level understand that they're accountable for serving customers, within the organization and beyond. And it's up to them to keep their businesses competitive through cost savings, reliable delivery, quality, customer service, and innovation.

The book also deals with the challenges of change management, laying out a step-by-step process for restructuring. Unlike many reorganizations where the top executive simply announces a new organization chart, Meyer's process is open and participative, engaging leadership teams in designing and deploying their new structures.

The process begins with a "rainbow analysis," in which leaders color-code their current organization chart based on the types of internal businesses under each of them. This vivid exercise reveals missing functions (gaps), groups trying to be experts at too many different things (rainbows), internal lines of business that are scattered all over the organization, and jobs that focus staff on something other than what they're supposed to be good at.

Principle-based Organizational Structure is a unique combination of vision, science, and pragmatic guidelines and processes. 35 stories and case studies throughout the book bring the principles to life. And Meyer's straightforward style and summaries at the end of each chapter make it an easy read.

Preston Simons, CIO of Aurora Health Care, said, "Frankly, after studying and applying these principles repeatedly, I can't imagine why other executives would depend on their intuitions, or repeat the mistakes others have made under the guise of 'best practices.'"

After reading this book, one has to grant that organizational structure is indeed a science a practical science that can benefit most any executive.

PRINCIPLE-BASED ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE: a handbook to help you engineer entrepreneurial thinking and teamwork into organizations of any size

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