Organization Design

Approach

Step 1: Organizational Assessment

• 360° assessment of factors impacting performance
• Diagnostic individual & team structured interviews, which found:
  • Lack of trust
  • Hoarding of information
  • Lack of shared goals
  • Unacceptable individual & group meeting behavior
  • Conflicting perception of goals

Step 2: Organizational Development

• Group behavior improvement
• Individual behavior improvement
• Interdependence

Step 3: Organizational Design

• Revised organization structure & reporting processes
• Development & implementation of a new internal communications plan

Results

• Follow-up surveys (individuals & group) reported significant improvement:
  • Cooperation
  • Information sharing
  • General trust
• Dramatic improvement of key performance indicators (6 months later):
  • Time to market rate improved by 50%
  • Unwanted staff turnover was decreased by 15%
  • SG&A costs were reduced by 21% on an annualized basis
  • 18% reduction of inventory costs
  • Sales costs were reduced 14% due to improved expense controls

Background

A US privately-owned manufacturer of semi-custom industrial conveyor accessories had experienced a severe decline in performance over the last 3 years and was also unprofitable for the last 2 years. EWA was engaged to develop solutions to improve organizational efficiency.

Approach

Step 1: Comprehensive organizational assessment

• Structured diagnostic interviews were performed with individuals, interdependent functional teams and department teams)
• Observations were conducted of department teams, cross-functional teams and senior management interaction and interdepartmental communication
• Information flow and reporting processes were also monitored

Step 2: Analysis of individual and group goals

• Assessment analysis identified several key issues which negatively affected the company’s organizational effectiveness including lack of trust, hoarding information, no shared goals, specific non-constructive meeting behaviors, and overlapping perceptions of individual roles

Step 3: Development of corrective actions f to increase performance through improved interaction

• Supporting groups and members to develop their interactive abilities, information sharing, trust and becoming more self-aware of their impact on others
• Working with individuals on negative behaviors, being a better observer of how others reacted to them and self-tallying instances of back sliding
• An internal event was conducted and all stakeholder viewpoints, inputs, finding and action steps were presented and discussed with the teams, new interaction norms were established and agreed and then teams were trained

Results

• Company attained breakeven status at the end of the year
• Sales grew by 10%
• Time to market decreased by 50%
• 15% reduction in staff turnover