Customer Reviews

The Building Blocks Approach to Organization Charts

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The ideas and approach given in this book, and other recent ones from the author, started with concepts outlined in his "Structural Cybernetics" (ISBN 0964163519). In addition, this book is also the keystone for "RoadMap: How to understand, diagnose, and fix your organization" (ISBN 0964163527), and "The Internal Economy" (ISBN 1892606186), which are the capstones on a structured and practical approach to building and maintaining a cost-effective, customer-focused organization at the enterprise or department level.

Basic concepts are provided in the first thirteen chapters, each of which is filled with clear definitions to give context, and examples to reinforce the concepts. Highlights of this part of the book include a succinct description of what an organization is, what constitutes a healthy organization, and what I call organizational anti-patterns - symptoms and examples of unhealthy organizations and practices that any reader will recognize from their own workplace. This material also leads you through the basics of building a solid organization by showing how to properly align functions, close gaps, and eliminate barriers.

The building blocks presented in chapters 14 through 19 provide a framework and five essential functions that need to be structured within the framework - technologists, service, coordinators, consultancies and auditing. At first glance these do not seem to fit all organizations, but as you read through the detailed definitions of each you'll discover that they, in fact, do - they may go by different names, but the functions are present. The important point Meyer makes is these areas are not distinct functions on an organization chart, but need to be carefully grouped and aligned. How that is done is covered in chapters 20 through 22, which show how to diagnose your structure, design the optimum high-performance structure, and the domains in which functions will be bounded.

Discussions of high-performance teamwork and how to implement a restructuring are provided in the final five chapters.

In total, this short (less than 100 pages of main text) book provides a realistic approach to building a viable organization. Throughout are best practices, such as involving lower level stakeholders in the development of the organizational structure, advice on how to adapt this approach to small organizations, and clear definitions of key concepts. There is also a strong focus on leadership (versus just management), teamwork, and focusing to customers and business goals. Even without reading Meyer's other books this one will greatly influence how you go about organizing or reorganizing your company or departmental structure. With his other books, however, you will have a well designed blueprint for success.