Let’s not confuse structure and organization
Through our company “Human Trajectory Makers”, we aim to support companies in their transformation projects, but is it possible to really help and provide support as part of an ambitious project to develop a business ?
“Change management” is widely mentioned in presentations often without a proper understanding of what it consists of and how to effect this change, or of an understanding what some leaders call behavior of reluctance to change. The result is that managers and their teams do not always understand each other about new ways of working, which leads to stagnation on both sides.
French management scholar and specialist in the sociology of business organizations, François Dupuy, enlightens us brilliantly in his book “The Bankruptcy of Managerial Thought, Lost in Management 2” on the distinction between structure and organization, which according to him is a “continuing and penalizing confusion”. In a context of business transformation, what should be changed is the structure, that is to say the organizational charts and rules, procedures, and major processes that drive the life of the business-to study the organization, what employees are doing, how they exchange and interact, how to qualify their behavior, their management…
For François Dupuy, it is important to go much further and go beyond organizational charts, rules and procedures, because it is with behaviors that we must act, and this is where the real organization resides. François Dupuy goes so far as to say that what is abstract is the structure and what is concrete is the organization.
These approaches are really complex and force us to realise that we don’t always have the right solutions when dealing with business transformation issues. New rules can be implemented, presented by managers who think there is nothing else to do. But deep down, we all have the experience of major business transformation projects presented on nice slides, not followed by tangible effects. To have any chance of success, the actors of these changes must work together, adopt common behaviors, start by taking time to establish a factual diagnosis, in order to find coherent solutions to the current problems. After this key step, teamwork should be initiated, in particular, speaking about performance, values and commitment, which often reappears by utilizing managerial vocabulary, and demonstrates a limited degree of effectiveness in communicating true and shared meaning.
Published the 03/17/21
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