I have lost track of how many times in my career I have been restructured or have been at risk of being made redundant. I remember once having to have a redundancy interview sitting in my car whilst on holiday down in the south west, I kept my job but it was all slightly surreal.
As I’ve got older I’ve worried less and less about being restructured, and now that I run my own little organisation I’m not quite sure how I could restructure myself or my fellow director (who is also my wife of 40 years).
Restructuring on paper is easy. The challenge is how to restructure in a way that keeps people positive and motivated, and at the same time creates meaningful change that improves the outcomes for workers and the people they support.
Here are my tips based on 40 years of being restructured and of doing the restructuring myself.
1. Workout what people are good at and use that as your baseline for creating new roles.
Putting people into roles that make no sense to them is very unhelpful. People end up spending a couple of years trying to work out what it is they are supposed to be doing, rather than getting on with just doing it.
If you need people to do something different, my basic rule is make the role 60% focused around what they already have knowledge and skills in and 40% around learning new knowledge and skills to undertake their new role. Also provide them with the learning and development to be able to be successful in their new role.
2. Spend a lot more time listening than talking.
If you are talking too much, you are unable to hear people’s positive views about change, as well as any concerns. Your workforce might have great ideas about how they feel the restructuring can benefit the organisation, the workforce and the people the organisation supports. Listen to all sides openly.
3. Don’t assume that the people being restructured are the only ones who may be scared. Those doing the restructuring are likely to be anxious as well.
Generally speaking, most human beings are looking for stability in their lives and are only able to cope with instability in one area of life at a time. So if our work life is unstable and our home life is unstable it’s likely that we’re going to find it much harder to deal with restructuring. The people doing the restructuring are often just as scared as the people being restructured. The sooner you can be honest with each other about this, the more likely you are to be successful in delivering change.
4. If you put round pegs into square holes, nothing will change and things will probably get worse.
I have seen so many people moved into jobs which are completely the wrong fit for them and yet they have stayed in those jobs because in their eyes at least they have a job. When people are put into jobs for which they aren’t suited not only is their working life messed up, the working life of their colleagues is also messed up and more pressure is put on everyone for little or no benefit.
5. Spend as little time as possible writing policy and position papers. Spend all of your time working out how to make any transition as smooth and painless as possible.
Writing policy and position papers about structural change is a great way to do absolutely nothing whilst making it look as if a lot is being done. It’s also a great way to avoid thinking about how difficult and uncomfortable restructuring can be.
6. Both as the person doing the restructuring and the people being restructured, you should never be afraid to be honest and say “we got that wrong let’s try something different”.
As many things will go wrong in any program of restructuring as will go right. It’s never a good idea to be dogmatic and plough on when it’s plainly obvious to you and everyone around you that your current framework for the restructure is not working well.
7. Embrace change.
It’s much less stressful to embrace the change than fight against it. You will also find that you have much more influence over how things change if you embrace it rather than fight it.
8. Restructuring is not about how macho you can be.
Honestly, a mature approach to restructuring is much more beneficial than slashing and burning (or should I say chain-sawing) your way through an organisation. A macho approach to restructuring does more damage than good. It creates conflict and enemies which are very unhelpful when trying to introduce change. Restructuring is not an opportunity to get rid of people you don’t like and to promote your friends.
9. Don’t rely on theory to make your restructuring decisions.
Theories come and go, reality is always there to bring theory crashing down to earth. Make your restructuring decisions after engaging with everyone, listening to every point of view and getting advice from a lot of different people. Make sure that the advice that you are getting isn’t just from a small clique that are only interested in protecting their own jobs or in getting better paid jobs, or making money.
10. Everyone will have a different perspective on the positive and negative outcomes from the restructuring.
All of these different perspectives are important. One person’s restructuring is a positive move forward, another person‘s restructuring is the worst thing that’s ever happened to them. One person may say ‘well, we’ve done this before and it didn’t work last time’. Another person may say ‘about time, this will make a real difference.’ There are many other perspectives as well.
11. Remember, the next restructuring is only just around the corner.
Things never stay the same for very long and that’s particularly the case in public service. The old saying “what comes around goes around” is so true. I have seen and been a part of so many restructurings over the years which have essentially taken us back to the structure we had three or four restructures ago. It does sometimes make me wonder what was wrong with the original structure in the first place.
In any restructure the most important thing is to be flexible and adaptable. To listen, learn and work with everybody and not against them. If the restructuring is going to make a difference, it needs to bring together at all times the people who are staying and the people who are going.
Restructuring can make a real difference to outcomes when handled well. However, this takes time, effort, energy, confidence, honesty and humour to get it right. It’s never a painless process, but with the right support structures it can make a positive difference to the workforce and to the lives of the people they support.
Jim Thomas
March 2025
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