Organizational Design Workshop — 90-Minute Guide

The problem to solve

Leadership workshops often create energy without a better operating decision. A useful design session needs a bounded problem, a shared evidence base, and a clear decision about what will be tested next.

This guide is deliberately short. It is meant to create a working hypothesis, not to complete a reorganization in a room.

The Work & Theory principle

Diagnose before prescribing. Use the session to understand the work and conditions around a tension before jumping to structure, people, or process solutions.

Diagnostic questions

Ask participants to bring one recent example of the tension.

• What work is not moving as needed?
• What outcome is at risk?
• Where does the work cross an unclear boundary?
• What evidence do we have versus assumptions?
• What is the smallest design change worth testing?

Practical next actions

Minutes 0–15: state the tension and desired outcome. Minutes 15–40: map the current work and evidence. Minutes 40–65: identify the first constraint and options. Minutes 65–90: select one test, owner, proof signal, and review date.

Document unanswered questions separately. The session should end with a working experiment, not a list of unowned observations.

Related artifact and pathway

The workshop can produce inputs for an Organizational Thesis or Organization Blueprint. If the team cannot agree on the primary tension, use the Health Check as a response-based starting point.