Why Structure First?

Dr. Ichak Adizes is an expert in change management for organizations. Here he shares his experience of how to bring new strategy into an organization by first meeting the organization where it is at, honoring the existing structure and personnel, and building new strategy collaboratively.

The professional literature and the consulting industry, by and large, promote the following sequence in treating problems: structure follows strategy .

On the surface, it makes sense. How do you know what structure you need in order to fulfill a function unless you first know what that function is? The same sequence is practiced in architecture and in new product development.

My experience as an organizational therapist for more than fifty years, as well as that of my associates at the Adizes Institute serving clients in more than seventy countries, say this sequence makes sense if you're starting totally from scratch. Then, in theory, without an already established organizational structure, you decide where you want to go and organize it to get there.