Organisational design diagnostic
A clear read of how your organisation is actually put together - what carries the work, what fights it, and what to change first.
Our organisational design diagnostic tells you how your organisation is actually put together - the way work really flows, not the shape on the org chart. We look at five angles: how the structure is set up, where roles and accountabilities sit, who holds which decisions, how work crosses the boundaries between teams, and whether your capability matches the demand. Then we give you what matters most - what's working and worth keeping, what's getting in the way, and what to change first.
Structure is easy to draw and hard to read from the inside. So we focus on the lived design - how the organisation runs on a normal week, not how it's meant to on paper. That's what makes the findings usable, and where any redesign should start.
Redesigns are 3x more likely to succeed when they address structure, processes and people together, rather than one in isolation (McKinsey). Reading all three at once is exactly what a diagnostic is for - before you commit to a new shape.
When an organisational design diagnostic helps
A diagnostic earns its place when a problem keeps surfacing and the cause looks structural - built into the organisation, not the people in it:
The situation | How an assessment helps |
|---|---|
You've grown, and the structure hasn't kept up | Shows where the old shape now gets in the way, so you redesign on evidence, not instinct. |
Decisions are slow, or it's unclear who owns them | Pinpoints where accountability has blurred, so you see why things stall. |
Teams keep tripping over each other | Surfaces the overlaps and handovers causing the friction, not the people caught in it. |
You're planning a restructure | Reads the current design before you commit to a new one, so you fix the real problem, not reshuffle it. |
The operating model feels off, but you can't say why | Turns a vague sense that something's wrong into a clear picture of what and where. |
You want to know if you're set up to scale | A read on whether your design can carry where you're heading, before the strain shows. |
What we look at
Most organisations come to us with a strategy already set. We start there, and read how well the design delivers against it - through five angles:
Structure and shape
Whether the way the organisation is divided up still fits its size, work and strategy. Most structures were drawn for an earlier version of the organisation, so we read how well the shape serves the one you are now.
That means looking at what each part is set up to do, how the parts relate, and where day-to-day work runs through the design or around it. Where the shape still fits, that's just as useful to know - it tells you what to protect.
Roles and accountabilities
Whether responsibilities are clear and owned, or blurred and falling into gaps. Growth stretches roles to cover new work, and clarity that was automatic at thirty people has to be designed at three hundred.
We map where accountability actually sits against where people believe it sits. The overlaps show where effort doubles up; the gaps show the work no role currently owns.
Decision rights
Whether it's clear who decides what, and whether authority sits where the work happens. Decision rights rarely appear on an org chart, yet day to day they matter more than most things that do.
We trace real decisions - where they started, who they travelled through, and who finally made the call. That shows where authority sits at the right level, and where moving it closer to the work would help.
Flow across boundaries
Whether work moves cleanly between teams, or snags on the handovers. Every structure draws boundaries somewhere - the design question is whether the work that matters most crosses them easily.
We follow that work across the joins: where it passes cleanly, where it waits, and where it needs rework on arrival. Because handovers are part of the design rather than the people, they are among the most fixable things we find.
Capability against demand
Whether the skills and capacity match what the organisation is now asked to do. Strategy tends to move faster than staffing plans, so the ask and the resource can drift apart without anyone deciding it.
We compare what the strategy demands of each part with the capability that part actually holds. That shows where you're well set, where you're stretched, and where investment would carry the most weight.
The five angles stay constant. How we read them, we shape around you - your strategy, your size, your operating model - so it fits your organisation, not a template.
Why these five angles
These five are where a design is made or lost. Structure and shape is the most visible: how the organisation is divided up, and whether it still fits the work. Roles and accountabilities is where growth does its quiet damage - responsibilities accumulate, ownership blurs, things start falling between people. Decision rights set the pace: when it isn't clear who decides, work that should take a day takes a month.
Flow across boundaries is where capable teams collide, on the handovers between them. And capability against demand is the real test: a design can be sound on paper and still be under-resourced for what you're asking now.
These are about how the organisation runs, not how it's drawn. The value is the judgement of where each symptom points - built across many organisations, and grounded in well-tested approaches like the Galbraith Star Model, without running one model at you.
How it works
We read the design through more than one method, so the findings hold up:
- We watch for - how work really runs, where structure supports it and where people work around the org chart rather than through it.
- We measure - a whole-organisation read across the five angles, reported by group so you see where views differ, not just the average.
- We listen for - interviews across a cross-section, not just leaders, anchored on real situations: a decision that dragged, a handover that broke.
- We notice - the patterns that cut across all of it, read with judgement from twenty years of organisational-development work.
The thinking behind the method
No single method captures a design on its own, so we use several and cross-check them. An org chart tells you the intended shape, not how work moves. Interviews reach the why, but only from the people in the room. Watching shows what people actually do, not what the structure says they should. Together they triangulate: a finding has to show up in more than one before we treat it as real.
We interview across a cross-section, not just leaders, on purpose. The people at the top are often the least able to see where the design snags in daily work, and that gap is often the most useful thing we find.
Rather than rate the structure in the abstract, people talk about real situations - a decision that stalled, work that fell between teams - and we trace it back to the design choice behind it. That surfaces the lived design far better than a rating scale.
And we show you the spread, not the average. Two organisations with the same headline can run completely differently. Where people disagree, by function or by level, is where the real picture is.
What you get
A working session, not a report filed and forgotten. You leave with:
- A clear picture of your design - how it actually works, not what the org chart says.
- The parts working and worth keeping, not just the faults.
- The few things getting in the way, and why.
- The handful of design changes that would make the most difference, and what acting on them would take.
Where two things are both true and pull against each other - "we want teams to move fast" and "we've centralised the decisions that would let them" - we show you both. That's usually where the useful conversation starts.
How we hand it back - and what happens next
The diagnostic ends in a working session, not a document in your inbox. We take you through what we found - what's working as much as what's getting in the way - so it lands as something you can act on.
Some of the most useful findings come in pairs - two true things pulling against each other, like the autonomy the strategy wants and the control the structure keeps. We name the tension rather than smoothing it over, because that's usually the thing to work on.
From there it's your call. Sometimes the picture is enough and you take the redesign forward yourselves; sometimes you want us alongside for what follows. And if what you need is lighter than you feared, we'll say so.
Focused now, or continuous over time
This is a focused, one-off read of your design. If you'd rather track the whole organisation over time - design as one of eight dimensions of health - that's States of Vitality, our organisational-health platform. Depth now, or the wider picture over time.
Common questions
How is this different from an engagement survey?
A survey tells you how people feel. A diagnostic tells you how the organisation is built, and why work moves the way it does. We read more than opinions - the structure, the decision rights, real situations where work stalled or fell between teams - and trace each back to the design choice behind it.
Who do you involve?
A cross-section, not just leaders. The people at the top are often the least able to see where the design snags in daily work, so we read across levels and functions - and the gap between those views is often the most useful thing we find.
Is this the same as a restructure?
No. The diagnostic reads how your current design actually works. A restructure is the redesign that might follow - and this is how you make sure it solves the real problem, rather than just moving the boxes.
How is this different from an organisational development diagnostic?
An organisational design diagnostic reads your structure specifically - shape, roles, decision rights and how work crosses boundaries. The organisational development diagnostic reads the whole system - structure, operations, capability and the tensions between them, and where development would compound. If structure is clearly the question, start here; if the parts each look fine but the organisation as a whole keeps straining, that's the wider read.
How long does it take?
It's usually weeks rather than months, but it depends on the size of your organisation and how complex the picture is. We build each diagnostic around you, and agree the timeline when we scope it.
How much does it cost?
There's no standard price - we build each diagnostic around you, so the cost reflects the size of your organisation, the scope, and the depth you need. We scope it with you and give you a clear figure before you commit.
Is it confidential?
Yes. Survey responses are anonymous, interviews are confidential, and we report in groups and patterns, never in a way that identifies an individual.
Organisations we've worked with
We've diagnosed and redesigned organisations across housing, charity, public sector and corporate settings. Every organisation is different, so every diagnostic is shaped around how yours actually works - but the common thread is the same: an honest read, given straight, that leaves you better placed to act.
We help you design your organisation around the value you want to create - the structure, the conditions around it, and the way work actually flows between them.
Operating model design gives you your target operating model: the to-be blueprint for how your organisation runs - the structure, the decisions, the processes and the management system, worked out in detail and ready to put into practice. We design it with your people, so the result is genuinely theirs.
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.
Evolving the operating model keeps the model you built fit and improving as strategy moves, and builds your own people's ability to run that tuning themselves. We adjust the design in small, regular cycles so it stays aligned without another big reorganisation, with an optional light rhythm where we stay involved as much or as little as you want.
The POLISM Canvas is an operating model tool that maps how an organisation actually functions across seven areas - from its value proposition to its management systems. It helps leaders visualise and redesign how work gets done.
The Galbraith Star Model is an organisational design framework that maps five interconnected elements - strategy, structure, processes, rewards, and people. It helps leaders see how these elements need to align for the organisation to work well.
The McKinsey 7-S Model is a strategic framework that maps seven interconnected elements of an organisation - from strategy and structure to skills and shared values. It helps leaders understand how changing one part of the organisation affects everything else.
An Organisational Maturity Model maps how developed your organisation's processes and capabilities are across five stages - from ad-hoc and reactive through to optimising and continuously improving. It helps you see where you are and what the next step looks like.
The RASCI Framework maps five roles in any project or decision - Responsible, Accountable, Supportive, Consulted, and Informed. It helps organisations clarify who does what, reducing confusion and speeding up delivery.
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How to design governance that enables innovation rather than constraining it. This article explores the balance between oversight and freedom, and how the right governance structures can become a genuine advantage.
Every growing organisation needs better processes, structures, and governance. But the operational foundations only work if the conditions underneath them - how decisions travel, how information flows, how culture holds together at scale - evolve at the same pace. Here's what's worth understanding before the scaling work begins.
Most organisations run on invisible infrastructure - the corridor conversation, the person who just knows, the relationships that bridge gaps between teams. Growth puts all of it under pressure. Scaling well means designing what replaces it.
A design diagnostic is the first step in how we approach organisational design. For the full picture - including how we co-design and put a new design into practice once you know where you stand - visit our main Organisational Design page.
Thinking about a design diagnostic?
Tell us what's prompting it and what you're hoping to understand. We'll be honest about whether a diagnostic is the right move.