Fix the work, not the org chart: how to build a future-ready operating model
Posted on 4 July 2025
By Hannah Harrison
When performance lags or challenges mount, leaders often reach for a familiar lever: restructuring.
It’s tempting! Move a few boxes on the org chart, realign reporting lines, and hope that a new configuration unlocks better results. More often than not, this approach fails to address the root cause of dysfunction. The real culprit? A flawed operating model.
What’s an operating model
An operating model defines how work gets done.
Not who, but how.
- The processes, governance, tools, and culture that underpin daily operations.
- It’s the engine beneath the structure, shaping how teams collaborate, make decisions, and deliver value.
Without a well-designed operating model, even the most perfectly structured team will struggle to perform.
Why restructuring falls short
Restructuring often focuses on hierarchy rather than flow. It answers the question, “Who reports to whom?” rather than “How does work move efficiently from idea to impact?”
This narrow focus overlooks bottlenecks, duplication, misaligned incentives, and cumbersome, manual processes that remain untouched, regardless of team configuration.
Limitations
➡️ It’s a short-term fix: restructuring teams addresses symptoms rather than root cause. Without transforming the operating model, underlying inefficiencies may persist.
➡️Limited scalability: while effective for small-scale adjustments, team restructuring may not be sustainable for long-term growth or significant strategic pivots.
➡️ Siloed thinking: realigning teams without altering organisational processes or systems can reinforce silos and duplication, hindering cross-departmental collaboration and real efficiency gains.
➡️Leadership confusion: shifting reporting lines and responsibilities can create confusion and uncertainty among leadership, impacting decision-making. Whilst the restructure happens, there is often inertia and some of the best processes and innovation get lost.
➡️Cultural resistance: here we go again… even team-level changes can face resistance if employees perceive them as frequent or arbitrary, with little to no benefit.
This last point is significant and shouldn’t be underestimated, so we’ll say it twice – constant restructuring can breed instability. Employees experience change fatigue, morale dips, and productivity suffers as they navigate new relationships and unclear expectations. Without addressing how the work itself is organised and executed, the same problems resurface – just under different reporting lines.
Model first, structure second
The hard path is often the right one, although rarely taken. Too often leaders jump to a restructure of teams to improve efficiency. This is the quick answer, that on the surface shows action and possible short-term cost reductions. However, it has limited benefit, no longevity and it rarely delivers actual improvements over the medium to long-term.
The inefficiencies and problems aren’t resolved, just moved.
The brave path, the longer and harder path to efficiency is the right one. This choice enables the Leader to listen to the teams and look at the way they operate – the processes they follow and the data analytics, tools and tech they rely on. If they are not fit-for-future, then neither is the structure.
Focusing on the operating model shifts attention from structure to substance. A strong operating model clarifies these key questions:
- Processes: are workflows streamlined, consistent, and designed for efficiency?
- Decision-making: who has the authority to make which decisions, and how are they communicated?
- Technology and tools: do employees have the resources they need to perform effectively?
- Culture and behaviours: are collaboration, accountability and continuous improvement embedded in daily work?
A well-functioning operating model creates clarity, reduces friction, and empowers teams to perform – regardless of how the org chart looks. Before you shuffle roles and reporting lines, take a step back and ask:
Is it the team that’s broken, or the way they’re being asked to work?
Fix the model, and the rest will follow
CPCO and CHRO leaders have a critical role in ensuring the organisation understands the value of the operating model and how it can be continuously improved to be more effective and efficient. They are the conscience and custodians, who help other Executives see the light ahead. The old way, the easy way, is no longer the right way.
Start with the operating model. Stop shuffling, start solving!
The HR Fixers’ difference
Refreshing the operating model isn’t easy, which is why so many Leaders shy away from it when it really matters. We’ve seen it done poorly and we’ve helped teams do it really well.
It’s not an overnight job. We partner with you and act as an extension of your HR team, helping you every step of the way.
We listen to your team, take time to understand how they work and identify the processes, data and tools that they use. Together we design a better way of working, in a fit-for-purpose operating model.