How to Redesign Your Company Structure to Create the Network of Teams?

The need to redesign a company structures is increasing, as the workplace is changing. This change is driven by many factors: work across the geographies; new behaviour; mobility; technology; and the challenges facing today’s businesses face in order to stay competitive. Old, traditional structures are shifting to a new organisational structure called “the Network of Teams”

 

The Network of Teams is an organizational model in which companies build

and empower teams to work on specific business projects and challenges, identified by the Deloitte University Press in 2016, after thorough research on Global Human Capital Trends. 

 

It expresses the ever-increasing need for companies to adapt to accommodate new ways of working, new types of employees, and new processes that are quickly becoming the norm for any business. 

 

 

The organisational environment within businesses is changing, supported by the new generation of workers - millennials. New teams are working across geographies and are moving towards a product or customer centric organisations. The need for team members to collaborate on multiple projects is rising and the businesses are responding by shifting from the traditional structure to the Network of Teams.

 

 

Changing a whole structure is not easy. The most important step is adjusting the company culture. Establishing norms from the start of the project and encouraging free flow of ideas by creating a nonjudgmental atmosphere within and between the teams, will empower the team to collaborate outside their team.

 

 

Network of Teams is dynamic, and empowered by the ability to set their own goals and make their own decisions. Of course, they are not completely loose, and self-sufficient, they are working within a given business plan towards a common goal, but they do so with a high level of initiative.

 

Traditional organisations are hierarchical, where managers tell employees what to do, the goals and standards are set in advance and the whole process is oriented towards performance management.

 

Network of Teams enables free information flow, which is completely different to the siloed practice of the traditional team structure where messages go up and down the corporate pyramid.

 

Network of Teams is organised around a mission or a product (e.g. pushing a new fragrance to the market) while Traditional Organisations are organised by business functions: (IT, sales etc.).

 

The members of the Network of Teams are encouraged to work across teams to participate on a project, while in Traditional Organisations they are working only within their own.

 

When it comes to HR, in the Network of Teams, employees are regarded as resources to the organisation, and in Traditional Organisations, employees are the resources of the managers.

 

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Changing a structure within a business is difficult, but not impossible. By implementing even just a little of this advice, you may see positive changes within your company that may encourage  further changes. Here’s a brief guide on forming a Network of Teams:

 

● Form mission-driven teams that are focused on customers, products and markets

● Delegate responsibility to your team and make them responsible for their own results

● Appoint strong team leaders and remove management layers (middle management)

● Create smaller teams

● Empower them with a set of information and communication tools

● Provide a Knowledge Sharing platform which can be updated in real-time

 

 

Finding the right knowledge sharing platform to fit the Network of Teams is not as easy as it may seem at first. Some important factors to take into consideration when choosing one are:

 

● Adoption: A behavioural change is necessary to enable adoption of the platform. By emphasizing the reasons and benefits of using it for their daily work, you can influence the adoption process.

● Business Goals: Key goals of the company should be aligned with the use cases for the platform so that increasing usage creates the results that matter.

● User Experience: Identify the user experience challenges that hold people back from working the way they want to.

● Integration: Transforming the platform into a place where people do their daily jobs requires other tools and sources of information to be integrated.

 

Shifting from a Traditional Organisation to the Network of Teams isn’t easy, but it is rewarding on so many levels. Imagine a hospital  organising its work around illnesses; forming a team dedicated to heart disease, for example, rather than business functions. Translate this to your business and measure the benefits it can give you.