Organization
Design
The cornerstone of competitive advantage
In today’s dynamic and hyper-competitive environment, the ability to design organizations that are efficient enough to drive performance and flexible enough to sustain advantage is of fundamental importance.
Questions about Organization Design?
CEO researchers have contributed foundational research on high performance systems; team-based organizations; self-forming and planned networks; inter-organizational designs, organizing for knowledge leadership; customer focused designs; global designs; and designs for agility and sustainability.
A fundamental tenet of our research is that organizations must consider the impact of their design choices not only on business performance, but also on employees, customers, and the communities and societies in which they operate. Since 2008, we have added a time dimension to the understanding of organization design, as organizations are having to confront the challenges of sustainability and agility.
A number of corporations have established partnerships with CEO to help them design more extensive in-house organization design capabilities. These partnerships may entail a mixture of sending multiple people to gain organization design certificates in our public programs, in-house tailored design workshops, shadow consulting to some flagship organization design projects, the development of company specific cases, organization design cases, webinars and other virtual educational offerings.
UPCOMING EVENT
EEN Session: Scenario Planning: HR Needs to Embrace It Into Its Toolkit
Tuesday, April 4, 2023
8:00am PT / 11:00am ET / 3:00pm GMT
With Dave Millner
Featured Article
Reflections: Sociotechnical Systems Design and Organization Change
This paper by William Pasmore, Ph.D. (Center for Creative Leadership), Stu Winby (Spring), Sue Mohrman, Ph.D. (CEO), Richard Vanasse (Spring) traces the evolution of sociotechnical systems design from its origins in the coal mines of Great Britain to the present day and beyond, into our digital future.
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Featured Webinar
Certificate in Organization Design
The Certificate Program in Organization Design offers participants a deep understanding of this important competency as well as models, tools, and processes that can be applied within their own organizations. One-on-one coaching and peer consulting offer a tailored approach for business leaders while adding breadth and depth in the skills they need to address design challenges at all levels of an organization.
Part I
Strategic Organization Design Workshop
Our Strategic Organization Design Workshop provides participants with core principles, frameworks, models, and tools. We use examples from our research and consulting to address the core building blocks of design and to demonstrate how to put them together to support strategy. In its 14th year (2012), this program has been attended by 1,000 participants from over 395 organizations.
Part II
Advanced Topics in Organization Design Workshop
Our Advanced Topics in Organization Design Workshop is a practicum-based course in which participants receive coaching while working through a real design challenge, and learn from each other as the projects are shared and critiqued during the workshop. The Strategic Organization Design Workshop is a prerequisite for this course. Participants who attend both workshops and successfully complete a design project receive a Certificate in Organization Design. In its 11th full cycle, more than 160 participants have received certificates.
Meet Our Researchers
Our award-winning research scientists, affiliates and practitioners help companies drive performance by providing leading-edge research, practical tools, and a wealth of experience.
Susan A. Mohrman
Senior Research Scientist
Dr. Susan Mohrman is widely known for her research in the area of organization design and effectiveness and on large-scale change. She has focused on the design of knowledge-based firms, knowledge creating systems, complex laterally linked organizations, the design of complex eco-system collaborations to foster sustainability, and on organization design of the digitally enabled work systems.
Christopher G. Worley
Senior Research Scientist, Center for Effective Organizations
Research Professor of Management, Pepperdine University
Dr. Chris Worley’s applied research and consulting practice is complemented by more than fifteen years of management experience in academic, for-profit, and government organizations. The primary focus of his efforts in these organizations has been on organization design, the building of agile capabilities, and organization development.
Beth Gunderson
Affiliate Research Scientist
Beth Gunderson is the Founder of Minikahda Partners, an organization and talent architecture firm specializing in organization design and enterprise transformation initiatives. Beth is also a permanent instructor at the University of Southern California – Center for Effective Organizations – in their Strategic Organization Design Workshop and Adapting to Disruption Workshop.