Life in modern corporations is often marked with frequent reorganization. This can be frustrating for individual team members, who are struggling day-to-day to get their work done. Breaking-in new management is an extra distraction. It can sometimes feel like management is full of busybodies that get bored, so they decide to reshuffle the deck and watch everyone squirm.

With 18 years in enterprise technology, I’ve been reorged more times than I can remember. As a leader in enterprise technology, I’ve initiated a number of reorgs myself, and I’ve learned a few things in the process.

Why reorg?

There’s usually a catalyst to a reorg. Management doesn’t do this just for fun, even though it seems that way. It’s pretty hard and taxing on the overall team. The number one reason for doing a reorg is because you have an out-going leader. This is an inflection point. You can replace that person and keep everything else the same, or you can use it as an opportunity to remake the organizational structure.

Another catalyst for reorg is to fix a problem. Perhaps you have all of the right people, but they just aren’t organized in a way that promotes effective communication, collaboration, or alignment. This is usually something to try after exhausting other options. You want to make sure you don’t just have a personnel performance problem before initiating this, because a reorg could just mask the problem (or move it to some other area).

You could also reorganize to respond proactively to a change in technology or business trend. This usually the least urgent reason to do a reorg. You have to weigh the perceived gains from being proactive against the temporary loss of productivity from the reorg.

Finally, you could reorg because you are new to an organization, and inherited the current structure. You think to yourself, “I’d like to put my stamp on the organization and change it to meet my preferences.” This is the weakest reason to do a reorg. I’d advise anyone in this position to sit tight and wait for one of the other catalysts mentioned above to drive it.

How to reorg

There is a stressful period of time between when you decide that you need to reorg and when you actually implement it. This time is usually filled with secret closed-door meetings. I don’t love this, but it’s necessary. When you are ideating on how to reorg, you have to keep it quiet and only involve core people that need to be a part of vetting and improving the reorg concept. Once you start down this path, it’s best to drive the process hard, and finish it as soon as possible. Secrets don’t stay secrets forever, so time isn’t on your side.

I like to iterate between one-on-one discussions and group discussions, making my rounds until I have solid confidence in the reorg design. See my previous blog article for more on this subject. This probably goes without saying, but definitely include human resources, your boss, some of your peers, and some of your direct reports in this process. This is not a solo task. You need a variety of perspectives.

Some may approach a reorg with a blank sheet of paper, drawing out the ideal functional structure in concept. You can only really do that if you are building a new organization, which isn’t really a reorg. If you find yourself in that situation, read this blog article. Otherwise, you need to do your reorganization in the explicit context of the people you have. This means that it cannot only look good on paper, but it also simultaneously needs to support the career development of your leaders and individual team members. That’s pretty hard to do, but when you can make it happen, you feel like the planets have aligned and you get really excited about the change.

How to communicate

Once the design is finalized, it’s go-time. First, it’s time to extend the circle of trust to those that are directly impacted by the reorg, but weren’t necessarily a part of designing it. That can be done one-on-one or in a group. Obviously, this is best done in-person if possible. As soon as you’ve made your rounds there, go public. Again, you don’t want a reorg to get communicated through the grapevine, you want to be clear, direct, and control the message. Hold a town hall, or send out a wide email to the department right away. The communication should be clear, simple, and direct.

One of the reasons this method of reorg is so important is because organizations really struggle in times of ambiguity or limbo. If people get the sense that a reorg is coming, but it takes a long time to materialize, that hurts productivity and morale.

For my readers that are considering a reorg, I hope this helps clarify the path for success. For my readers that are on my team and just got reorged by me, thank you for your patience and support. There’s a method to the madness!