#9 - The goal of organisation design

When you're a change agent, you tend to end up in a fair share of business transformations. And over time, you start to notice patterns around organisational designs. Many differ in detail, but their shape is nearly always the same.

In pursuit of mission execution, business leaders (and their consultants) tend to default to top-down structures that optimise for visibility, governance and control. Treating the organisation as a dashboard. But the goal of an organisation isn't about maximising control. It's about maximising outcomes. Or, as James Lewis put it in a talk at GOTO; 2022:

The goal of organisational design is to optimise the flow of value. All else is subordinate.

It's common to think that this optimisation comes from top-down alignment. But here’s the paradox: the more tightly you try to control the system, the more you risk constraining its potential. High-performing organisations often trade the comfort of control for shortening their critical path towards customer value. They decentralise. They delegate. They lead with trust. Not blindly, but through a strong set of guiding principles, enabling constraints, and clarity about what matters most.

Without it, organisational designs themselves can become wasteful. Adding layers on the critical path between the customer and the value they came for. Layers that demand communication, coordination and permission. It widens the gap between the organisation and the value it should deliver.

So rather than organising around control, draw the critical path. Lead with clarity and constraint. Clarity on what matters, and enabling constraints to systematically remove what gets in the way. Because when the path is clear, people get the confidence to move. Not because they’re told, but because the critical path becomes obvious. And when it does, the flow of value moves like water. Inevitable and unforced.