Unpacking organizations: the practitioner's podcast Rupert Morrison, Shradha Prakash

The conversation explores the relationship between the level of work and hierarchies within organizations (yes, these are two different concepts). It discusses how the wrong levels of work can lead to the manifestation of wrong types of hierarchy, resulting in micromanagement and confusion in reporting structures. The conversation introduces the work of Elliott Jacques, a Canadian behavioural scientist, who developed a stratified system to categorize different levels of work based on time horizon and cognitive complexity.

This week, our guest is Amy Kates. A guiding force for all of org design practitioners and enthusiasts out there. Amy shares her impressive journey of becoming an org design industry leader and an entrepreneur as she talks about STAR model of org design, concept of Minimum Viable Structure and the importance of taking time and space to do org diagnostic. Join us to hear her talk about how a good org design helps shape desired human behavior at scale.

In this episode, we are honoured to have Paul Tolchinsky as our guest. Paul discusses his journey in whole-scale change management and the lessons he has learned over the years. He emphasizes the importance of speed and engagement in change efforts, and the need to involve the whole system in decision-making. Paul also highlights the trap of being preachy and thinking that you have all the answers, instead advocating for listening to the wisdom of the system. The key takeaway is to trust the wisdom in the system and create conditions for people to achieve their desired outcomes.

In this episode, Shradha and Rupert discuss the concept of time and how it relates to organizational design and workforce planning. They explore the different time horizons of strategic, operational, and tactical planning, and the level of granularity and aggregation associated with each. The conversation emphasizes the need for different thinking styles, language and involvement of stakeholders when discussing different planning approaches.

Strategic workforce planning involves long-term thinking and scenario analysis. Operational workforce planning focuses on budgeting and resource allocation in the short to medium term. Tactical workforce planning is reactive and deals with immediate scheduling and staffing needs. Capacity planning can be considered in all three planning approaches.

Alice Mann, founder of Mann Partners Inc., joins the hosts to discuss org design in the context of private equity firms. Alice explains the importance of understanding the strategy, value creation plans, stakeholder dynamics and need for systems thinking approach to ensure robust org design whether at a founder led firm or in a large corporation. She emphasizes the tool of considering ‘people plus context equals performance’ and warns against looking at individuals out of context. Tune in to hear from Alice about her background, her enriching experience and her invaluable thoughts on designing organizations.

In this episode, Rupert and Shradha are joined by Shefali Salwan, co-founder of CEO Works, to discuss the concept of talent to value. The conversation delves into aligning talent with value creation as a crucial lever for organizational success. Shefali emphasizes the significance of understanding the work and context of a role, rather than solely focusing on talent. She highlights designing without understanding the work as one of the traps that practitioners should watch out for.
Join us to hear impactful organizational case studies from Shefali’s remarkable journey through HR and entrepreneurship.