A great tool for evaluating and improving your structure is a simple organizational chart. If yours is out of date or nonexistent, the exercise of creating it will be enlightening. Include relationships with outside suppliers, contractors and anyone else you count on to provide goods and services to your customers. Once the picture is clear, you can begin to see where you may be out of alignment and what stands between you and the ability to excel.

Assessment

In many organizations, a group of people creates strategy, another focuses on getting and keeping customers, another manages people, while still others run internal systems. At times, it may seem they are separated by walls ten feet high and ten feet thick because, even in small organizations, the right hand literally doesn't know what the left hand is doing. What is your inter-departmental strategy? Does it take an Act of Congress to get something done? How satisfied are employees with their ability to function and what impact does dissatisfaction have on client service?

Great indicators of mis-alignment are "work-arounds." When individuals bend or ignore standard reporting and decision-making procedures, it signals a problem. It's common to have people working at cross-purposes without even recognizing it. This leads to competition between individuals and functions, mis-allocation of resources, lost productivity, customer complaints, poor morale, duplicated effort, pass the buck mentality, absenteeism, employee turnover, stress, loss of clients, lower profit...have you had enough? Let's turn to solutions.

Alignment

The best thing for yourself, your organization and those you serve is a regular check up. The org chart is a great place to start. One of my long-time, favorite book recommendations is Michael Gerber's The E-Myth Revisited. Gerber popularized the phrase, "work on your business, not in it." Although written over a decade ago, the concepts are still strong, the message straightforward, and the lessons on systematizing your business are practical and applicable.

Whether it's been a few years or you've never read it, try reading it twice within a couple of weeks. The repetition will add to the value.

For additional insight into your own structure's effectiveness, professional organizational assessments range from simple to extremely complex. Once obstacles are identified, the solutions may not be hard to find.

Questions to Ask Yourself and Your Team