How to choose an organizational style for your business

Key quotes:

• "I’m a proponent of and believer in the idea that organizations need to change drastically — or to use some hipper lingo: need to install a new operational model — in order to cope with today’s challenges (digitization, speed, complexity, convergence, to name a few)."
• "“Every part of your business should be organized around the ‘principle’ that makes work the most seamless” Of course, their are techniques and tools which address each of the individual points and create a varying degree of relief."
• "Even if you are said manufacturer and your production works best when organized by function, you likely have several departments that don’t."
• "When it comes down to it, all work is there to create something — be it a product, a great customer experience or a set of well written and designed PowerPoint charts — and your organization should be created in a way that you can achieve the best possible results as seamlessly and quickly as possible."

Key quotes:

• "Over the past few years I’ve had the unique experience of implementing various forms of self-organization and self-management in dramatically different contexts, from a 25-person startup, to a non-profit, to a Fortune 10 conglomerate."
• "Along the way I’ve learned that certain characteristics of the context heavily influence what kind of system will work and spread."
• "This presents a training conundrum: by the time we teach 100,000 people a new way of working, the world may well be underwater from climate change, or the self-organizing startup down the street has put us out of business."
• "In it, I’ve made an attempt at cataloging some of the most popular forms of self-organization, plotted against the scale and risk profile in which they work best, and calling out examples of brands in the space developing or using these approaches."
• "To date, this context seems to be experiencing the most innovation in terms of ways and means to self-organize: Spotify’s Agile Squads being one of the more interesting."

Key quotes:

• "A note from the author (June 2016): Since publishing this article nearly 11 months ago I’ve had the opportunity to join and help build a new company, The Ready, that has brought to life many of the ideas I share in this article."
• "We aren’t perfect (no organization ever is) but looking back after nearly a year of helping build this new company I’m struck by how closely what I wrote here actually describes the work we do and how we do it."
• "Ever since its demise I’ve been thinking a lot about what the next truly influential organizational design consultancy of the 21st century should look like."
• "The organizational design consultancy of the 21st century is essentially tasked with helping organizations navigate a world that is rather hopelessly unpredictable, chaotic, and exceedingly quick to change."
• "The organizational design firm of the 21st century will necessarily have to be selective about the types of companies they work with."

Key quotes:

• "A company style guide, when done right, can create unexpected benefits across your organization while helping new employees get up to speed on the nitty-gritty details."
• "Microsoft is a great example of a company whose writing style guide is so well designed and trusted that it is used by editors, writers, software developers, and marketers across businesses and industries."
• "An especially small company with a few people who work together often may get by without a style guide."
• "However, without a style guide, companies with more than a handful of individuals or multiple offices will likely struggle with maintaining a uniform look and feel across written content."
• "However, without a style guide, companies with more than a handful of individuals or multiple offices will likely struggle with maintaining a uniform look and feel across written content."
• "Next, solicit input from a smaller group of employees to help select a “best” option from the commonly encountered uses and inconsistencies across your company."

Key quotes:

• "No matter how well you write, no matter how carefully you proofread, your article or story can’t live up to its potential if it’s not well organized."
• "A reader is more likely to stick around when a quick scan reveals that the information in your article is relevant."
• "That’s especially important if you’re writing a blog post or any other piece of content that relies on search engine traffic."
• "Before you begin writing, think about how you’ll structure your article or post."
• "READ: 3 Ways to Master the Power of Empathy in Your Writing Journalists use the inverted pyramid technique, which puts the most critical elements of a story first and then adds supporting facts and details in order of importance."
• "READ: 5 Writing Goals You Can Set Right Now Often, we go in search of an article because we’re trying to solve a problem."