Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending pieces with lacquer mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. Rather than hiding cracks, Kintsugi highlights them. It transforms what was once broken into something unique and beautiful. Each golden seam tells a story of history and imperfection, celebrated as a symbol of resilience and renewal.
This ancient practice offers a powerful metaphor for organizations navigating times of disruption. Just as Kintsugi turns fractures into beauty, companies can use moments of crisis to mend, highlight and ultimately transform. They can emerge stronger, more resilient and more valuable than before.
The Process of Kintsugi
Organizations can follow a similar path in times of disruption: mend what is broken, highlight what matters most and transform into something stronger and more resilient.
Mending: Stabilizing Amid Disruption
Periods of disruption—whether economic turbulence, industry shifts, or global crises—can feel overwhelming. Leaders are often confronted with difficult questions:
- Should we cut costs?
- Do we pause strategic initiatives?
- How do we protect employees and customers while preparing for what’s next?
The first instinct may be to retreat or wait for stability to return. Yet history shows that organizations that act decisively during times of uncertainty are the ones best positioned to emerge stronger. Mending is not about patchwork fixes. It’s about intentionally stabilizing the enterprise so critical functions can continue and momentum is not lost.
Highlighting: Finding Strength in Imperfection
Kintsugi’s brilliance lies in how it makes flaws visible and beautiful. In the same way, organizations can use disruption to shine a light on what differentiates them. Weaknesses revealed in a crisis can actually guide future investment and focus.
At AlignOrg Solutions, we’ve seen companies use disruption as an opportunity to examine their strategy, choices, and capabilities more honestly than ever before. By highlighting gaps in processes, leadership alignment, or customer experience, leaders can make deliberate choices to strengthen the very areas that once threatened stability.
Transformation: Designing for the Future
True transformation happens when leaders look beyond repair and take bold steps toward the future. The guiding question becomes: Where do we want to be on the other side of this disruption?
This requires more than tactical fixes. It demands a strategic organization design—an intentional approach that aligns structures, governance, metrics, talent, and culture with the company’s long-term vision. When all elements of the organization work together in harmony, even under pressure, companies can deliver differentiated results in the marketplace.
This is not about across-the-board cuts. It’s about prioritization, eliminating distractions, and designing an operating model that is both resilient and adaptable.
Building Blocks of Success
In Mastering the Cube, we outline several building blocks of successful organization design. Four become especially important during disruption:
- Organizational alignment: Ensuring that strategy, choices, and capabilities reinforce one another.
- Co-creation: Involving leaders and subject matter experts to bring diverse perspectives and new ideas.
- Staffing follows structure: Designing the ideal organization first, then aligning talent, rather than forcing people into ill-fitting roles.
- Prioritization of strategic work: Channeling resources toward high-value initiatives and reducing activities that don’t move the organization forward.
Too often, the urgency of day-to-day demands pushes aside long-term strategy. Disruption creates a unique opening to revisit priorities, make hard choices, and chart a clearer path for the future.
Moving Forward When the Path Feels Blocked
One of the greatest challenges in disruption is the perception that progress must pause. Leaders may assume that without in-person interaction or normal routines, critical work cannot continue. In truth, the opposite is often true.
With the right facilitation and tools, strategic design can be advanced virtually or in hybrid formats. Robust platforms allow for interactive discussions, brainstorming, and co-creation across geographies. Technology eliminates barriers and allows leaders to engage deeply, even when people are not physically together.
The lesson: disruption doesn’t have to stall progress. With deliberate design, organizations can move forward—sometimes faster than before.
Seeing Light Through the Storm
Every disruption carries uncertainty, but it also clarifies what matters most. Leaders who embrace organization design in these moments can turn crisis into opportunity: building resilience, sharpening strategy, and positioning their organizations to thrive in the future.
Like Kintsugi, the process may leave visible “scars”, but those marks tell a story of resilience and transformation. An organization that has mended, highlighted its strengths and transformed is not just restored. It is stronger, more beautiful and more valuable than before.
You don’t have to navigate this process alone. Proven methods, robust tools and experienced facilitation can help turn tough decisions into lasting results. With the right approach, your organization can thrive after disruption.
For more information on this topic, please see Opportunity in Crisis: Survival & Success Through Strategic Organization Design, coming Q4, 2025.
