Structure follows strategy, or strategy stalls
Every strategy implies work that has to flow across the organisation. If the structure forces that work through long dependency chains, handoffs and committees, progress slows regardless of how good the goals are. Dependencies kill momentum: each one is a queue, a negotiation and a chance to be deprioritised by someone else\u2019s workload.
Designing for progress
- Organise around the strategic outcomes and value streams, not just functional convenience.
- Give the teams that own strategic OKRs the cross-functional capabilities they need, so key results do not stall waiting on other departments.
- Keep coordination mechanisms deliberate: clear decision rights, explicit interfaces between teams, an operating rhythm that surfaces blockers weekly.
- Revisit the design as strategy changes; the structure that got you here was optimised for the old bets.
The briefing works through real re-designs, including what to centralise, what to embed and how to re-draw boundaries without a re-org that consumes the year.