Rethink your organisational model

We do it with you

Process facilitation

We help your organisation rethink its organisational model. We work alongside your executive team, board, supervisory board, management, wider teams and, where needed, external stakeholders.

We start with your mission and strategy, because a sound structure is never an end in itself. Your organisation should enable you to deliver your social mission.

From strategy to organisational model

Together, we explore what kind of organisation you need to deliver your strategy.

We look at:

• your social mission and strategic choices;
• your core activities and programmes;
• your teams, functions and roles;
• your meeting and decision-making structures;
• your leadership and management structure;
• your governance, including the board, supervisory board, executive team and mandates;
• your culture and patterns of collaboration.

This often reveals where energy is being lost. Sometimes the problem lies in the structure. Sometimes it lies in unclear roles. Sometimes the governance model no longer fits the organisation’s scale or complexity. More often than not, it is a combination of all three.

Governance that fits your organisation

MMany organisations struggle with governance questions.

Board members want to stay involved without straying into executive management. Supervisory board members seek the right balance between distance and engagement. Executives need room to act, but also clear parameters. Teams want ownership, but their mandates are not always clear.

We help you clarify these relationships.

We address questions such as:

• What is the role of the board or supervisory board?
• Which responsibilities belong to the executive and management teams?
• Where should different decisions be made?
• What information is needed for effective supervision?
• How do you create space for constructive challenge, trust and accountability?
• What governance model fits growth, contraction, partnership or merger?

This turns governance from a formal arrangement on paper into a practical model for leading and governing your organisation.

Clarifying roles, mandates and decision-making

Much of the tension within organisations is caused not by ill will, but by a lack of clarity.

Who decides? Who advises? Who delivers? Who needs to be informed? Which decisions belong to the executive team, the board or individual teams? And which decisions require prior approval?

We help you turn roles, responsibilities and mandates into clear working agreements.

Clear mandates create room to act. People spend less time guessing, waiting or repeatedly checking decisions with others. Collaboration becomes easier and decision-making becomes faster.

Supporting mergers and integration

More and more mission-driven organisations are exploring closer partnerships, shared services, board-level collaboration or merger.

A merger is rarely just a legal process. Everything may look right on paper while the real integration has yet to begin. Teams need to find ways of working together. Roles change. Reporting and accountability lines need to be redesigned. Systems, processes and cultures must be brought together. The board, supervisory board and executive team must also agree how the new organisation will be led and governed.

We guide merger and integration processes around one central question:

How can we build an organisation that is stronger than the sum of its parts?

We work across strategy, governance, structure, roles, culture, communication, decision-making and transition planning.

We do it for you

Analysis and delivery

You save time. We do the preparatory work. You make the decisions.

You may not need a complete organisational development process. What you need might be a clear analysis, a design proposal or practical tools. In that case, we take on the research, thinking and design work for you.

Organisational review

We assess your current organisational model.

We examine your structure, teams, functions, meetings, decision-making, leadership, culture, organisational direction and governance.

You gain a clear understanding of:

• what is working well;
• where energy is being lost;
• where roles or mandates are unclear;
• where decision-making is slowing down;
• where the board, supervisory board or executive team are not reinforcing one another;
• what needs to change.

You will not receive a report packed with abstract models. You will receive a clear basis for making decisions.

Governance review

We assess whether your governance still fits your mission, scale, complexity and ambitions.

We examine the relationship between your board, supervisory board, executive team, management and wider teams. We analyse mandates, decision-making, information flows, supervision, accountability and the separation of roles.

The result is practical advice on how to make your governance clearer, leaner and more effective.

This may lead to changes in:

• your board or supervisory model;
• your executive charter or mandate framework;
• your meeting and decision-making structures;
• the information provided to the board or supervisory board;
• the division of responsibilities between governance, supervision and delivery;

• governance arrangements for a partnership or merger.

   

Organisational design, organisation chart and role framework

If your current structure no longer fits, we help you design a new organisational model.

We start not with the people currently in post, but with the way the organisation needs to operate. Which teams make sense? Which functions are missing? Which roles could be combined? What management structure is needed? And what governance model will support it?

We then translate the design into a realistic step-by-step plan. Not everything can change overnight. Intermediate steps may be needed, and the plan must take account of existing staff, funding, collective agreements, organisational history and current commitments.

Roles and decision-making matrix

We define who is responsible for what.

This may take the form of a role matrix, mandate matrix or decision-making model. It makes It clear:

who decides, who advises, who delivers and who needs to be informed.

For many organisations, this creates an immediate breakthrough. It reveals where work is being duplicated, where no one has taken ownership and where too many people are involved in the same decision.

Merger review and integration plan

Before a merger or far-reaching partnership, we can conduct a merger review.

We assess the strategic, organisational, cultural and governance fit between the organisations.

We explore questions such as:

• Why do these organisations want to come together?
• What additional social value will the merger create?
• Where do the organisations strengthen one another?
• Where are the risks?
• What governance model will fit the new organisation?
• Which decisions must be made before the merger?
• What must you avoid discovering only after the merger has taken place?

During or after the merger, we develop an integration plan covering structure, governance, teams, functions, processes, culture, communication, decision-making and phasing.

This turns the merger from a purely board-level decision into a carefully managed organisational change.

You do it yourself

Coaching for executives, boards and supervisory boards

We coach chief executives, board members, supervisory board members and management teams who are leading an organisational change, governance review or merger themselves.

This may involve preparing difficult conversations, designing the process, clarifying mandates, responding to resistance or involving the board, supervisory board and wider team.

You remain in charge of the process. We bring structure, experience, clear language and critical questions.

Governance workshop

In a practical session, we bring your board, supervisory board and executive team around the same table.

We work on role clarity, mandates, decision-making, information flows and collaboration. This is not a theoretical governance exercise. It is a focused conversation about how your organisation is actually governed and led.

Roles and decision-making workshop

In a practical workshop, we help teams, managers or executives clarify their roles, responsibilities and decision-making arrangements.

We identify where uncertainty exists and translate it into clear, practical agreements.

Merger compass

For organisations exploring a merger, integration or far-reaching partnership, we use a merger compass.

It helps bring the most important questions to the table early:

• Why do we want to come together?
• What do we want to do better or more powerfully together?
• What governance model will support this?
• What should the new organisation look like?
• Which cultural differences must we take seriously?
• What needs to be clear before the merger?
• Which integration steps must we not overlook?

Our approach

We always begin with a thorough exploration.

What is really happening? Where are things getting stuck? How is the organisation’s history still shaping the present? Which decisions have already been made? Which tensions are being voiced, and which remain unspoken? What does your strategy require from your organisation? And what does your governance require from the board, supervisory board, executive team and wider teams?

We then design the right approach together.

This might be a complete organisational development process, a governance review, a merger review, a series of workshops on roles and decision-making, support for the board and executive team, or an integration plan following a merger.

We work thoroughly, but we do not let the process drag on. Organisational development must lead to greater clarity, stronger collaboration and concrete decisions.