Reed Deshler

Strategic thinking is essential for an organization to differentiate and ultimately win in the marketplace. However, strategic thinking is much more than the ability to apply data, trends, and themes or envision big ideas. While these skills are certainly important for leaders of an organization, they don’t ensure that these ideas, trends, and themes end … Enhancing the Strategic Thinking of Executives Leads to Better Results

Learn three ways that leveraging Agile principles can help you improve organization design work and unleash the potential of your best employees.

Every organization struggles to make trade-offs. Naturally, it is hard to say no to good opportunities. However, intuitively we know that we can’t be everything to everybody, that our resources are limited, and that not everything will fit onto our work plate. Fortunately, many businesses recognize the need for trade-offs and want to create more … Overcoming the Challenge of Making Trade-offs

Although matrix organizations are not new, they can remain puzzling even to the most seasoned executives. How can you recognize matrix driven issues when you, as an executive, are embroiled in the matrix itself? How can you evaluate the effectiveness of a matrix structure? Rather than lump all the common matrix issues together, it is … Evaluate and Diagnose Problems in Your Matrix Organization

With the beginning of a new year, many executives are looking to improve their businesses, their market presence, and their competitive advantage over the course of the new year. This may include changes to strategy, enhancements to organization capabilities, streamlined processes, optimized structures, refined reward systems, new measurement systems, and more. While I don’t want … Don’t Sprint an Organization Transformation Marathon

Whether we like it or not, today’s marketplace is increasingly more complex.  As a result, many organizations have turned to a matrix structure to help mitigate the complexities. However, most organizations fail to fully utilize a matrix and instead it becomes little more than a few dotted-line reporting relationships sprinkled throughout the organization chart. So, … Do I Need a Matrix Structure?

For many, the holiday season is a complicated time of year when we look forward to time with family and friends but also deadlines and year-end business commitments.  For executives in the throes of an organization transformation, the holiday season can be stressful because milestones and deliverables don’t take a break with the festive season … Accelerate Organization Transformation Success by Taking Advantage of the Holidays

What is one of the most important ingredients in helping leaders guide their organizations through a change transformation? Having a trusted change partner to act as a guide, advisor, and sounding board along the way. But, what makes a good change partner? What are the five key to choosing the right change partner?

True organization transformation requires more than mere structural change. It demands that the organization does things differently and that executives, leaders, and ultimately every employee understands the organization’s intentions and strategic “difference.” This calibration of actions and thinking to drive a consistent strategy is organization alignment and leads to true organization transformation. Defining alignment and … Organization Design Demands High-Stakes Conversations

When people talk about matrix organizations, different ideas come to mind.  In the most straightforward sense, a matrix organization is when one individual formally reports to two or more managers (solid and dotted lines). We might also say that a matrix is one form (there are many) of organizational linking mechanisms that enable organizations to … Matrix Organization Design: How to Get the Most Out of It