105%
increase in cross-functional collaboration
Organization Design & Effectiveness
Aligning Organization with Strategy for Effective Execution
CLA helps leaders build organizations where structure and strategy move together. Our Purpose-Driven Design approach and the Organizational Congruence Model ensure that all formal and informal elements of the organization, structure, processes, culture, and people systems, are designed to work in unity toward a common goal.
Let's TalkUnderstand How Your Organization Really Operates
Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) maps the informal networks that actually determine how information flows, how decisions get made, and where hidden leaders and hidden gaps exist. CLA uses ONA to give leaders a data-driven view of their organization's real operating structure, enabling more targeted interventions in design, talent development, and change initiatives.
Realign Structure to the Realities of How Your Team Operates
As organizations grow, restructure, or shift strategy, formal structures tend to lag behind. Informal networks carry the real work, accountabilities blur, and decision-making slows. We help leaders diagnose the gap between how the organization is designed and how it actually operates, and redesign accordingly, using our Organizational Congruence Model to ensure all formal and informal elements work in unity.
Reduce Structural Friction to Accelerate Execution
Decision bottlenecks, unclear roles, and competing priorities do not resolve themselves. Left unaddressed, they compound, creating operating drag that eats into performance and talent. We identify the structural and process sources of friction and help leaders build organizations designed to move.
Design for Lasting Transformation
Organization redesigns, strategy shifts, and operational transformations fail more often than they succeed, not because the design is wrong, but because people do not change. We integrate change management into our organization design work from the start, ensuring new structures and processes get adopted rather than worked around. One engagement with a global CPG company resulted in a $70M increase in net sales within the first year and a 105% increase in cross-departmental collaboration.
Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) maps the informal networks that actually determine how information flows, how decisions get made, and where hidden leaders and hidden gaps exist. CLA uses ONA to give leaders a data-driven view of their organization's real operating structure, enabling more targeted interventions in design, talent development, and change initiatives.
As organizations grow, restructure, or shift strategy, formal structures tend to lag behind. Informal networks carry the real work, accountabilities blur, and decision-making slows. We help leaders diagnose the gap between how the organization is designed and how it actually operates, and redesign accordingly, using our Organizational Congruence Model to ensure all formal and informal elements work in unity.
Decision bottlenecks, unclear roles, and competing priorities do not resolve themselves. Left unaddressed, they compound, creating operating drag that eats into performance and talent. We identify the structural and process sources of friction and help leaders build organizations designed to move.
Organization redesigns, strategy shifts, and operational transformations fail more often than they succeed, not because the design is wrong, but because people do not change. We integrate change management into our organization design work from the start, ensuring new structures and processes get adopted rather than worked around. One engagement with a global CPG company resulted in a $70M increase in net sales within the first year and a 105% increase in cross-departmental collaboration.
Our Approach to Organization Design
We integrate structure, process, and people to build organizations and operating models that are truly fit for purpose. By leveraging data-driven insights and the principles of complex adaptive systems, we design organizations that thrive in today's fast-paced, more complex business environment.
Strategy-Aligned
Every design decision traces back to the strategic intent. Structure, roles, and decision rights are designed to execute the strategy.
Organizational Cohesion
We look beyond lines and boxes, focusing on how all organizational elements work together, including informal networks revealed through ONA, to drive cohesive and effective performance.
Co-Creation
We partner with representatives of the organization to incorporate diverse perspectives, ensuring the new design is relevant, clear, and embraced.
Activation and Implementation
We work with organizations to bring the new design to life, ensuring the transition is smooth and the new design delivers immediate and long-term results.
Preview the Whitepaper
Download Our Organization Design Guide
Our guide describes how we approach Purpose-Driven Design to ensure all aspects of an organization work in unity toward a common goal.
Our Clients Get Results
33%
reduction in cycle time
1.2X
increase in new product development
Our Expertise Is Trusted By
“People were using the tools as soon as we had developed them, before the project was formally closed. The adoption rate was that rapid.”
Experts in Organization Design & Effectiveness
Our practitioners bring experience across organization design, operating model development, ONA, and large-scale transformation in complex enterprise and PE-backed environments.
Let's TalkStructure shapes behavior. We design around strategy.
— Natalie Baumgartner, PhD
FAQs
Common questions about how we approach organization design, what network analysis reveals, and how this differs from a reorganization.
Organization design is the deliberate shaping of an organization’s structure, roles, decision rights, and operating processes to enable it to achieve its strategic goals. When organizations are well-designed, work flows efficiently, accountability is clear, and people make better decisions faster. When they are not, good strategies stall: information gets siloed, decisions slow down, and the organization works against itself.
Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) is a methodology for mapping the informal networks that actually determine how information flows, decisions get made, and work gets done in an organization. Unlike org charts, which show formal reporting lines, ONA reveals who people actually go to for advice, information, and collaboration. At CLA, we use ONA to uncover hidden leaders, identify collaboration gaps, inform org design decisions, and guide talent development interventions.
A reorganization typically refers to changing the formal reporting structure. Organization design is a more comprehensive process that addresses the full set of factors that determine how an organization performs: not just structure, but decision rights, operating rhythms, role clarity, and informal networks. CLA’s Purpose-Driven Design approach ensures that all elements are addressed together.
Explore Our Latest Thinking
Perspectives on organizational structure, operating model design, and the systemic factors that drive or undermine execution.
Ready to Build an Organization That Can Execute?
Tell us what you're working on. We'll help you figure out where structure is getting in the way.
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