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The pace of reorgs continues to stay strong, due to factors including shifting market and economic conditions, tech and digital transformation projects, rapid growth, mergers and acquisitions, and the ever-present pressure to deliver results more efficiently.

“Company reorganization or restructuring may sound scary, but it is an inevitable and necessary part of any company’s growth and maturity.” LucidChart

Leading a successful reorganization requires careful and strategic planning, effective leadership, and thoughtful change management. We’ve helped Fortune 500 companies navigate complex reorganizations from organizational design to implementation support. Leveraging this expertise, we’re sharing five best practices for leaders. These practical strategies will help you achieve a successful and seamless reorganization that will optimize efficiency and position your company for long-term growth.

# 5 Tips For Leaders For Successful Organizational Transformations

Table of Contents

# 1: Start with empathy, listen, and clearly define the ‘why’.

With a reorganization, employees are often the last to know and also the most impacted by the change. While it can be difficult to share a lot of information during the design phase due to the confidential nature of this work, you can ensure employees feel heard and have opportunities to share their concerns and ideas.

Before designing a new organizational structure, host listening sessions for employees at various levels to get input on the current state and existing problems or blockers. This helps clarify and define the problem — the why — more clearly and can be used to inform the organizational design approach. Then, when the change is announced, connect and communicate the benefits and how the reorganization will address the problems identified by the employees.

# 2: Yes, you want business results but don’t overlook the human element of change.

Oftentimes, as a leader, you can be hyper-focused on the business aspects of the organizational restructuring and forget about the human at the receiving end of that change.

One successful approach is to ask leaders, individually, how they want people to feel when they first hear the news and at several points after the initial announcement of the change. Then, lead a collective discussion with leaders to facilitate consensus and commitments based on their answers. Last, reinforce those commitments throughout the process. Ultimately, it is easier to achieve the business goals of those changes by consistently connecting with employees.

Two people are standing and leaning on a desk while a third person sits at the desk with a computer as they talk

A woman is holding a laptop while a man looks at the screen smiling while in an office

# 3: Make time for leaders to process their own emotions about the change and enable them to be successful champions.

Change is hard — even for leaders. Build into your reorganization plan time for leaders and managers to reflect on the impact of the change on them personally and their teams. Allowing managers to go on their own change journey enables them to become stronger advocates. This will also result in smoother change implementation.

To further prepare managers to communicate the change to others, facilitate small group or one-on-one role-playing with talking points to create consistency in messaging and build authenticity and comfort in delivery.

# 4: Partner closely with learning and development to curate and develop resources to help employees build skills to support new capabilities.

As part of the design process, map the impacts to new skills employees will need to be successful. Bring L&D into the conversation early on to plan resources and programs to help people build the skills they’ll need to be successful in the future organization. Emphasizing your commitment to these resources and programs in initial communication about upcoming changes to employees provides reassurance and can mitigate resistance to the changes.

# 5: Lean on leaders’ strengths when communicating the change to create authenticity and trust.

During any big change, trust is paramount. And one of the primary pillars of developing trust is authenticity. For example, while empathy is important, it doesn’t always come naturally to everyone. Forcing empathy in message delivery can appear inauthentic.

Identify each leader’s strengths, for example, transparency or storytelling, and find ways for them to use them in their change communication.

Conclusion

Reorgs will never be easy. But balancing business results with the human aspects of change will help you successfully navigate the complexities of change. By planning thoughtfully and focusing on the experience of all people impacted by the changes, you will help your organization realize the goals of your reorg through improved collaboration, efficiency, and skills.

“If the process is handled badly, teammates become cynical, lose trust in management, and company performance suffers. This doesn’t have to be the case: giving thought and care to how you approach a reorg can improve outcomes and avoid the most negative consequences.” LeadDev

How our People & Change experts can help

Change Management in Reorganizations: 5 Tips for Leaders

Jenny Niec