A public sector education and business support organisation

The business issue
This organisation was not delivering on any of its targets. There were daily frustrations and fire-fighting, and the top team were showing signs of stress.

What we discovered
After talking to key individuals, it became clear that the organisation structure was hindering their ability to achieve their mission. Some of the features were:

• Its customers needed a PhD to figure out how to access its services.
• The structure and key processes took staff away from what should have been a focus on service and quality.
• The organisation had different customer groups with fundamentally different requirements, but treated them all the same.

What we did next
We helped the top team to decide on the design criteria for their new structure e.g. it had to mirror their customer segments. We then helped them to design the new structure and key processes, and to make other adjustments to their ways of working.

To ensure buy in and to use the knowledge within the organisation, members of staff were drawn in to flesh out the revised roles and responsibilities. In addition, the CEO wanted to ensure that roles were filled by the right individuals, so all staff underwent a thorough assessment to inform appointment decisions.

The outcome
The size of the organisation, and the passion of its people about their mission, made it possible to undertake this change relatively quickly. The organisation started motoring towards its mission with a renewed sense of focus and purpose.