Books & publications
Book "Reorganisation und Restrukturierung" – Winfried Berner
At first glance, reorganisations do not look like a great challenge for change management. You have to communicate a bit (as far as the temporary news blackout allows), explain why organisational change is necessary, talk people through the new organisation chart that has been agreed, make sure everyone understands what their future role will be … But be honest: however well or badly you communicate, as long as the new structure has not been botched entirely, it will start work on the appointed day. Even if it does so with a good deal of creaking and grinding.
Reorganisation: it only looks as if it runs itself
Enormous scope to shape things
For a long time, therefore, I regarded reorganisations as relatively dull change projects: good practice, not least because there is not much you can spoil, but no challenge for the advanced. Until a few alarming examples showed me that there is in fact a good deal you can spoil - not least the culture and people's trust in top management. And that, on closer inspection, reorganisations also open up enormous scope to shape things, particularly for change managers who are at home with culture change.
Preventing avoidable damage
Dealing with those who lose out
The first important change management task in a reorganisation is to prevent damage. The danger comes less from failing to explain the reasons for the change in the organisational structure and/or the new organisation chart well enough – it comes in communicating with those whose future areas of responsibility differ markedly from their current ones, and above all in dealing with the "losers" of the reorganisation.
When tasks and roles change
For those whose function, role or range of tasks changes, it makes a world of difference whether they are asked and their agreement sought, or whether they are simply moved somewhere. Even though they know, of course, that this is a request they can hardly refuse, it does show them that the executive board assumes they have a view of their own future role, and that this view is not a matter of complete indifference to it. Being put somewhere without being asked means a high degree of being determined by others; no wonder, then, that those affected are outraged at being "shoved around like pieces of furniture".
Treating the losers fairly
The absolute worst case, though, is when managers who lose their job in the reorganisation first learn of it at the public presentation of the new organisation - by searching the organisation chart in vain for their own name. The rising panic and dismay they feel in that moment is of course witnessed by their colleagues too - and they are shocked: "You simply cannot treat people like that!" In this way an apparently small lapse in communication can grow into a lasting loss of trust in top management.
A unique opportunity to develop the culture
A hidden opportunity
Avoiding such easy and - in hindsight! - obvious mistakes is, as you will see in the book, harder than it seems, for a variety of practical reasons. But the highest level of change management is not just avoiding fatal mistakes; it is using the potential for developing the corporate culture in line with the strategy that lies in almost every reorganisation.
The obstacle: established habits
To recognise this potential, you have to be clear about one thing: the greatest enemy of culture change, in normal running operations, is settled routine and habit. The overwhelming majority of people tend to behave today much as they behaved yesterday and the day before - and they expect the same of their colleagues, of their bosses and of the people who work for them. A change of behaviour is difficult under these conditions, and a lasting one all the more so.
Reorganisation upsets the routines
A reorganisation, however, upsets many of those settled routines and workflows: contacts and responsibilities change, some old interfaces disappear while new ones appear, obstacles fall away, and new possibilities as well as new constraints open up. In other words, people at every level have to reorient themselves. They can no longer work "on autopilot", but have to build new relationships with new interface partners and find a new mode of working with them. The new organisation has to settle down.
A changed "we"
In some circumstances the new structure even creates a new "we" that becomes the primary object of people's identification. When business units are introduced, for example, "we" soon no longer means the whole company but one's own division. When new departments and divisions are created, "we" refers primarily to one's own unit. That changes something fundamental: who we regard as "one of us" and therefore support as far as we can, and who we regard as an outsider and consequently feel far less connected to.
Making active use of the inevitable settling-in period
The great, irretrievable opportunity lies in not simply leaving this inevitable process of adapting the culture to the new structures and conditions to itself, but in shaping it actively. And in doing so along one simple question: what culture do we need to succeed in our future business and in our new structure? Which in turn splits into two questions: which strengths of the culture we have should we hold on to and carry into the new structure? And: which habits should we adapt, or develop afresh for what will be asked of us in future?
New routines form within a few weeks
In fact there is hardly a better moment for developing the culture further than immediately after a reorganisation. The challenge is to use that chance before the "window of opportunity" closes again after a few weeks, because new identities, routines and habits have formed in the meantime.
Four basic types of reorganisation
Different types of reorganisation
Even though every reorganisation is (a little) different, there are four basic patterns that account for the lion's share – at least if one leaves aside smaller reorganisations at department and division level. They are:
- Introducing an additional management level in start-ups that are growing larger and in fast-growing companies,
- The move from a functional to a divisional structure (that is, to divisions / business areas / business units),
- The move to a matrix organisation, or the shift of the matrix from partial autonomy for the regional structures to worldwide authority for the divisions / business areas
- The restructuring of an organisation that has grown long in the tooth, when the success factors of the business have changed and cost efficiency has become one of the central success factors, if not the central one.
Attention to the specifics
This book deals not only with reorganisation in general but also with the particular features of these different types of reorganisation – including their particular critical moments and the different conditions each brings for realigning the corporate culture in line with the strategy.
A practical orientation on solid theoretical ground
Readers and reviewers have particularly praised my previous books for their clear language, their convincing analysis and their pronounced orientation towards practice. "Reorganisation und Restrukturierung", too, does not lose itself in theoretical treatises but offers a wealth of practical examples, which are the best way of seeing what matters. Yet true to Kurt Lewin's principle that "there is nothing so practical as a good theory", the book delivers not only many methods and practical tips but also builds on a solid professional foundation of psychology, behavioural biology and management science. In this way it brings together the state of research with practical experience from numerous reorganisations and from many successful cultural changes.
Contents and sample extract
Here you can download the book's table of contents and a substantial sample extract:
Where can you get the book?
The quickest way is to order it from Amazon or from the online shop of Schäffer-Poeschel Verlag. (Ordering directly from the publisher earns both the publisher, a mid-sized firm, and me as the author a considerably higher return.) But of course you can get it just as easily from a bookshop or another mail-order retailer.