Services / Organizational design
Organizational design and restructuring for colleges and universities
Rightsizing structures, clarifying who decides what, and building the capacity your mission actually requires.
What the work is
Most institutional org charts are archaeology. They record a hiring decision from 2011, a retirement nobody backfilled, and a reporting line invented to solve a personality problem that has since resolved itself. The result is a structure where accountability is genuinely unclear, and where the same decision gets made three times in three places.
We start from the work rather than the boxes. What decisions does this institution need to make, how fast, and who has the information to make them? Structure follows from that, along with the harder answers about span of control, position management, and where consolidation is real savings versus deferred cost.
Our consultants have run these changes from the inside as chief operating and chief business officers, which is why our recommendations account for collective bargaining, shared governance, and the fact that a reorg announced badly costs more than it saves.
- Org structure and reporting design
- Role clarity and RACI workshops
- Shared services and consolidation studies
- Position management and FTE planning
- Merger and affiliation design
- Span-of-control benchmarking
- Decision rights mapping
- Transition and communication planning
How a redesign engagement runs
Diagnosis before drawing. Most failed reorgs skipped the first two phases.
Map
Current structure, position inventory, decision paths, and where work actually flows versus where the chart says it does.
Diagnose
Interviews and benchmarking surface the specific failures: duplicated decisions, unclear accountability, spans too wide or too narrow.
Design
Two or three structural options with honest trade-offs, cost implications, and bargaining and governance consequences stated up front.
Transition
Sequencing, communication plan, and the ninety-day support that determines whether the new structure holds.
Who leads this work
Led by consultants who have carried out restructures as sitting executives, not only advised on them.
Is this the same as a reorganization?
A reorganization is one possible outcome. Often the better answer is clarifying decision rights and roles inside the structure you already have, which is faster, cheaper, and does not trigger a bargaining conversation. We will tell you when that is the case.
How do you handle collective bargaining and shared governance?
We identify bargaining and consultation implications during the design phase, before options go to cabinet, so nothing is recommended that cannot be implemented. Several of our consultants have negotiated these changes from the management side.
Can you help with a merger or affiliation?
Yes. That includes structural design for the combined institution, shared services scoping, position mapping, and the transition sequencing. Accreditation implications are part of the scope.
How long does it take?
Four to eight months for a full design engagement at a single institution. Role clarity and decision rights work alone can be done in six to ten weeks.
Tell us what you’re facing.
Most engagements start with a thirty-minute call and no deck.
Related