Two business people smiling at a computer
Opportunity
A global organization approached Paradox to support them after restructuring a business unit.
Using the Paradox Work System, we worked to facilitate a process to redesign the operating model work in way that gave team members in the process of designing a solution for how they could work together moving forward.
More specifically, the organization enlisted Paradox to help with:
- Creating a comprehensive change management plan for their restructured business unit
- Bandwidth support for their internal team throughout the process of developing the new operating model
- Developing a repeatable process that different groups within the unit could follow as this was a reorganization impacting approximately 6,000 people that focused on team-building and formation
- Providing support to new leaders in new positions who were tasked with implementing a new strategy that wasn’t fully mapped out
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion is very important to the organization, so the solution needed to be a framework that all of these teams could apply while also mitigating any potential biases
At the core of the matter, the organization wanted to make sure their people strategy aligned with their organizational strategy.
The teams in the restructured business unit needed support in change management and helping each organization unit, many newly-formed, figure out their unique answers to the following questions:
- Why do we exist?
- What problem(s) do we exist to solve?
- And how do we organize ourselves around solving that problem?
The scope of this project touched everyone in the business unit and leadership wanted an engaging, catalytic solution to jump start the change management process.
They couldn’t move forward with their work until they knew how work was best distributed, how to communicate, how to share information, and how to make decisions.
Plus, a key part of this project was to also manage the human reaction to change as this restructuring fundamentally changed many people’s roles, responsibilities, and teams.
This huge transition required a lot of attention and energy, while the work itself still needed accomplishing.
Solution
Paradox’s partnership model was well positioned to develop a tailored solution that would develop a thoughtful approach to managing change, create a collaborative, effective engagement for the organization’s employees, and shift mindsets of teams to develop innovative approaches to collaborating.
We partnered with each units’ leadership and leadership teams to develop and facilitate a collaborative process that guided the team through defining their work, establishing communication channels and norms, setting information sharing practices, and clarifying decision-making processes — both among their team and with other parts of the organization.
Paradox was also able to bring in partners at different points during the process to ensure the organization had the right expertise at each stage.
At each stage of developing the solution we used our equitable process design framework to ensure that the strategy we developed would create a high-performing, great place for all to work.
Finally, we supported the organization through implementation of the strategy by coaching the leaders, taking groups through a consistent process to clarify what business they were in and how to best organize themselves to deliver on their ultimate goals.
Results
Through this engagement, Paradox Consulting Partners:
- Developed a strategy that supported change management for 6,000 person business unit restructure
- Led organization through implementation of the strategy
- Provided clarity for the team on how to engage with each other and with the organization so that they could work more productively in the new structure
- Prepared leaders who were able and ready to lead a more aligned team
- Fostered stronger team rapport and trust so that they could voice and tackle obstacles as they arose
- Clearly laid out priorities for the new team and showed the organization how to engage productively with them