Operating Model Rollout
Operating Model Rollout stands your target operating model up across the organisation, function by function. We move people onto the new structure and reporting lines, put decision rights into live use, switch teams onto the redesigned processes, ready the systems and data behind them, and wire the model to the numbers that show it working. By the end the new model is live and running the work.
Our Operating Model Rollout takes an agreed target operating model and makes it live across the organisation, and we run seven workstreams: the structure and role transition, the decision rights and governance stand-up, the process and ways-of-working build, the systems, data and tooling enablement, the sourcing and supplier realignment, the performance and measurement wiring, and the leadership and capability enablement that leaves your people running it. We land these together, function by function, until people sit in the redesigned structure, decisions happen where the design placed them, and the work runs on the new model.
The rollout is real work and often the largest engagement of the arc, so we deliver it with your people rather than around them. We agree our role with you up front and can flex it as the programme runs: we lead the full implementation, co-lead alongside your team, or support your own programme from the side, matched to your capacity and the size of the work. We partner with technical, PM and systems specialists for deep build, and we co-create throughout so your leaders can run the model without us at the end.
Less than a quarter of organisational-redesign efforts succeed. 44% run out of steam after getting under way, and a third fail to meet their objectives or improve performance after implementation. The implementation, not the design, decides the result (McKinsey & Company Global Survey, 'Getting organizational redesign right', 2015).
When operating model rollout helps
Operating Model Rollout is the step where a target operating model becomes how the organisation actually runs. These are the situations we are most often asked into. If one sounds like yours, this is a good place to start.
The situation | How it helps |
|---|---|
You have a target operating model designed and now need to make it real | Takes the agreed design and stands it up across the organisation, so the model on paper becomes the structure, decisions and processes people work in |
A previous restructure stalled after the announcement | Runs the transition workstream by workstream through to live use, so the new structure, decision rights and processes land rather than fading back to the old ones |
You lack the bandwidth to deliver a rollout this size alone | Adds transition leadership and delivery capacity alongside your team, in a role we agree with you, so the programme runs without pulling your leaders off the day job |
You need to move to the new model without breaking the business | Sequences the rollout in phases with dual-running and clear cutover points, so the organisation keeps operating while it switches over |
The design keeps getting re-argued instead of built | Puts the agreed decision rights and governance into live use from day one, so authority sits where the design placed it and the model gets built rather than reopened |
New structures, systems and processes all have to change at once | Runs the connected workstreams together, so structure, processes, systems and performance land as one working model rather than in isolation |
What we design
We run seven workstreams, and land them together so the model works as one whole:
- Structure and role transition - We move people onto the new organisation chart and reporting lines, confirming role mandates, filling the redesigned units, retiring the old structure, and running dual-running arrangements where two models overlap during the switch.
- Decision rights and governance stand-up - We put the model's decision rights, accountabilities and escalation routes into live use, standing up the boards, forums and RACI so authority sits where the design placed it from day one.
- Process and ways-of-working build - We turn the designed value chains into the procedures teams actually follow, documenting the redesigned end-to-end processes, standard operating procedures and handoffs, then switching teams onto them.
- Systems, data and tooling enablement - We ready the information systems and data the model runs on, configuring the tooling, aligning data definitions and ownership, and sequencing the technical build with specialist systems and PM partners.
- Sourcing and supplier realignment - We reset who does the work and who supplies it, repointing service boundaries, supplier and partner arrangements, and any shared-service or outsourced elements the new model depends on.
- Performance and measurement wiring - We connect the model to the numbers that prove it works, standing up the KPIs, reporting and management dashboards so leaders can see the new operating model performing and steer it.
- Leadership and capability enablement - We equip leaders and teams to run the model themselves, through the transition governance, capability-building and hands-on coaching that leave you more able to operate and own the change afterwards.
Why these seven
These seven are the workstreams a target operating model needs stood up together to run in practice. A new structure without live decision rights stalls where the old one did. Redesigned processes without the systems and data behind them snag at every handoff. Performance you cannot see is performance you cannot steer. So we land them as a connected set, sequenced function by function, rather than one at a time.
The seven follow the established operating-model frameworks, so the rollout covers every dimension of the design and leaves none un-implemented - the organisation and its processes, the information and systems they run on, the sourcing and suppliers around them, and the management system that keeps the model performing. The leadership and capability workstream runs across all of them, because the point is a model your own people operate and own once we step back.
How it works
The method produces one thing: the target operating model live and running the work. It delivers the design across the organisation without stopping the business, and leaves your people able to run it. It works in four modes.
- We scope our role with you - The rollout is substantial, so we agree up front what we run and what your team runs, and we can flex it as the programme goes. We lead the full implementation, co-lead alongside your people, or support your own programme from the side, matched to your capacity and the size of the work. The posture is agreed, never assumed.
- We run it in phases and waves - We mobilise the transition governance and workstream leads, map the current-to-target move with its interim roles and cutover points, then build and cut over function by function with quick wins first. Dual-running covers the switch, so the organisation keeps operating while it moves onto the new model.
- We deliver it with your people - Your leaders and teams work inside the rollout, not alongside it, so the new structure, processes and decision rights are built by the people who will run them. That makes the model fit how the organisation actually works, and makes it theirs by the time it goes live.
- We track it to landed - We wire up the performance reporting and measure the model against the baseline the diagnostic set, so we can see it working rather than assume it. Where a workstream is not landing, we correct it and stay with it until the model is bedded in and running.
The thinking behind the method
Most redesigns fail in implementation, not on paper. The design can be right and the rollout still run out of steam, because standing a new model up touches the structure, the decisions, the processes, the systems and the numbers all at once, and any one of them left half-done pulls the rest back to how things were. So we treat the rollout as connected workstreams sequenced together, not a list of changes handed to separate owners.
We deliver it with your people and flex our role to your capacity for the same reason the design was built with them: a model people help stand up is a model they run. Co-creating the rollout builds the internal capability to operate it as the programme goes, so ownership is already in place when we step back. And we measure against the diagnostic baseline throughout, because a rollout is only done when the numbers show the new model performing, not when the org chart is redrawn.
What you get
By the end, you have four things:
- The new operating model live and running - people in the redesigned structure and reporting lines, decision rights and governance in use, processes and systems switched over, and the work running on the target model.
- Proof it is working, measured against the baseline - the KPIs, reporting and dashboards stood up and read against the diagnostic's starting point, so the result shows up in the numbers.
- Your people more capable of running it - leaders and teams who built the rollout and now operate the model, with the internal capability to run and adjust it left behind.
- A working governance and management rhythm - the boards, forums and performance cadence handed over live and ready for the next stage.
A rollout has to move fast enough to land the model and carefully enough to keep the business running, and those pull against each other: speed wants to switch everything over, safety wants to hold the old model in place. Sequencing the cutover so both hold is the craft of the work.
How we hand it over - and what happens next
The point of the work is a target operating model your organisation runs on its own, so we build the handover in from the start. Because your leaders and teams stood the model up with us, taking it over confirms something they already operate rather than receiving it cold. We transfer the live governance, the performance reporting and the management rhythm, and we step back from the workstreams as each one beds in.
From there the model is live and yours to run. Standing a model up is not the end of the arc, though. Once it is running, Stage 04 Adapt sustains and evolves it over the long run, tuning the model as the organisation and its context keep changing, so what you stood up keeps performing rather than drifting. The rollout has done its job when the new model is live, the numbers show it working, and your own leaders own and steer it.
Where this sits
Operating Model Rollout is the third step in how we approach organisational design. It delivers the Operating Model Design across the organisation, follows the Organisational Design Diagnostic that read the shape you had and set the baseline we measure against, and leads into ongoing Adapt, which sustains and evolves the model once it is live. It also stands on its own - if you already have a design, ours or your own, and need it stood up across the organisation, this is where to start.
Common questions
How is this different from Operating Model Design?
The design produces the blueprint - the worked-out target operating model, on a page and in the detail beneath it. The rollout delivers that blueprint across the organisation: it moves people onto the new structure, puts the decision rights into live use, switches teams onto the redesigned processes, readies the systems, and wires up performance, until the model is live and running the work. Design answers 'what to build'. The rollout builds it. Many clients move straight from one to the other, but if you already have a design, you can start here.
How is this different from your Change Management service, or the other rollout programmes?
Every rollout uses change-delivery mechanics - mobilising leaders, moving teams, embedding new ways of working - so that groundwork is shared. What makes this programme distinct is the change it delivers: standing up an operating model, which means the structure, decision rights, processes, systems, sourcing and performance wiring. It is separate from our Ways of Working Rollout, which lands a management system and standard work, and from our Scale-Up Rollout, which extends a model across sites as you grow. This one is the structural transition to a redesigned operating model.
How much do you lead, and how much do we?
We agree that with you, and it flexes to your capability and the size of the work. We can lead the full implementation, co-lead alongside your team, or support your own programme from the side. Whatever the posture, we co-create throughout and build your people's capability as we go, so the point is always that you can run the model without us at the end. We set the role up front and adjust it as the programme runs.
Do you handle the technical and systems build?
We deliver the organisation, people and process side of the model, and we ready the systems and data at the level the rollout needs - configuring tooling, aligning data definitions and ownership, and sequencing the technical work. For deep technical, PM and systems build we partner with the specialists who own that, and fold their work into the wider programme, so the whole model lands together rather than the org change and the systems build running apart.
What do we walk away with?
The new operating model live and running - people in the redesigned structure, decision rights and governance in use, processes and systems switched over, and performance showing up in the numbers against the diagnostic baseline. You also walk away with a working governance and management rhythm handed over live, and your own leaders and teams more capable of running and adjusting the model, because they built the rollout with us.
What happens after the programme?
The model is live and yours to run. From there, Stage 04 Adapt sustains and evolves it over the long run, tuning the operating model as your strategy, structure and context keep shifting, so it keeps performing rather than drifting back. And because we leave the capability behind, much of that ongoing adjustment is work your own people can carry themselves.
Ready to stand your operating model up?
Tell us what you are trying to stand up and where your team is stretched, and we will talk through what an Operating Model Rollout would look like for you - the workstreams, the phasing, and the role you would want us to play. If you already have a design ready to implement, we can go straight to planning the rollout, delivered with your people so the model lands and is yours to run.