Stop Obsessing Over Your Operating Model

Most likely, because they (or their consultants) believe it will solve their most pressing problems -- efficiency, responsibility and accountability, scale, resource allocation, communication, etc. Millions of dollars and months of time later, a team of consultants is happy to tell them the perfect op model for their business … one not too dissimilar from what you could probably find on Google or ChatGPT (see below), if we're being brutally honest.

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What we're about to say will probably give your consultants an aneurysm:  the op model doesn't matter as much as you think it does.  An operating model is nothing but meaningless words on a page or a nice reporting structure in Workday without real-world behaviors to make your business more efficient, more collaborative, more accountable, or whatever it is you're trying to achieve.

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Our advice to you:  stop wasting time and money designing new operating models.  Instead, invest your resources in embedding the behaviors, values, and mindsets that will be needed to drive your business growth and success.

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Here's a true story:  A company thought it needed a new op model to work better with its parent company.  It spent months of time crafting the perfect model, followed all the right change management practices to announce and cascade the model to its employees, and elevated leaders into new roles.  But the people who worked at this company kept working the same way they always had.  And nothing changed.  This same company did the same thing all over again, one year later.  But yet again, nothing changed.  The same problems with the parent company persisted.  

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The moral of this story is that the op model itself isn't the answer.  The day-to-day behaviors, mindsets, and ways of working of everyone at the company are what will drive the changes you want to see in your business.  This type of change is doesn't happen with nice charts on PowerPoint slides or in big Town Hall announcements, but in the day-to-day decisions and actions of the people at your company.  

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P.S. In line with our ChatGPT experiment, we asked the chatbot how to determine the best operating model for a business.  Below is its step-by-step outline (for free!), so that you can save some money on consultants and focus instead of driving your business forward:

• Define your business strategy: Start by understanding your business's vision, mission, and strategic objectives. This will help you determine what you want to achieve and what kind of operating model will support your goals.
• Assess your internal and external environment: Analyze the current strengths and weaknesses of your business and consider any external factors that may impact your operations. This will help you understand what kind of operating model will be feasible and effective for your business.
• Evaluate your resources: Consider the resources you have available, including human capital, financial resources, technology, and infrastructure. This will help you determine what you can realistically achieve and what kind of operating model will be most efficient and effective.
• Identify your customers: Understand who your customers are, what they want and need, and how they interact with your business. This information will help you determine the type of operating model that will best serve your customers.
• Compare different operating models: Research and evaluate different operating models and determine which ones align with your strategy and can be supported by your resources.
• Test and refine your operating model: Once you've selected an operating model, pilot it and collect feedback from stakeholders, including employees, customers, and business partners. Use this feedback to refine and improve your operating model over time.