Operating model redesigns have a reputation for looking elegant on paper and collapsing on contact with the real business. The problem is rarely the design itself — it’s how it meets the people and processes already in motion.
Design for the business you run today
Start with the decisions that matter most and work backward to structure, not the other way round. If a new model makes the most important decisions slower, it isn’t an improvement.
Sequence the change
Move in waves. Stabilise one part of the organisation before redesigning the next, and protect the teams that keep revenue flowing while everything around them shifts.
Done well, a new operating model should feel less like a reorganisation and more like friction quietly disappearing.
