After the restructure... What now?
That was painful. Bruising even.
So many organisations, across all sectors, have been through brutal downsizing. Much was done in haste, giving us no time to design and deliver a future fit organisation, with a planned structure and operating model. When time is driving the change, we end up with ad hoc decisions driven by policy such as the hiring freeze, which leaves decisions about who stays or goes down to nothing more than chance. It’s the worst possible outcome for the business and the people left behind. Some teams remain full and others decimated with no clear rationale.
Then the tidy up begins, putting a structure and operating model in place. We kick ourselves for letting people go who we now realise we need. We might try to get them back, with mixed success. Others who remain now don’t have an easy fit and so the next round of redundancies comes, like a wave of nausea.
Let’s pause here. The waves of restructures not only hurt, but they crush our ability to deliver great work. After the slashing, burning and regretful ‘all staff meetings’ it's time to create the future and make it a brighter one.
With a smaller workforce and no additional money, how do you do that?
Redesign work and drive productivity.
There’s a huge opportunity to make work fun again by redesigning it altogether. This brutal experience has coincided with the onset of AI and a flexibility revolution. Those two factors combined can transform what’s possible for you now.
AI tools like ChatGPT literally give everyone access to Einstein-like intelligence. Rather than being wowed by demonstrations of what generative AI can do, start wondering what you can do with help from AI. Imagine how much more productive you could be if you had Einstein working alongside you? An Einstein that was willing to listen to what you are trying to achieve and offer help and support along the way. An Einstein that was willing to do some of the more boring work too, like transcribing audio, researching, answering technical queries, providing that Excel formula you need, summarising large documents, or creating first drafts. The list of ways that generative AI can help is endless.
Using AI can make you better at your job. AI won’t replace you, but people working with AI will.
Now is the time to stop and ask: how might AI help? The magic of asking that question is that it leads to bigger questions: how do we create value? How do we work? And why? The introduction of AI creates opportunities to rethink and redesign how we work.
While you’re redesigning work to make the most of AI opportunities, you can build in more flexibility. No longer do you need to be constrained; that you can't offer flexibility because the nature of the work won't allow for it. While you're redesigning the future, take the opportunity to design work that gives everyone some choices about their hours, days or place of work.
Flexible work is valued on average 8% of pay. If you want to manage salary inflation, flex is the way to go. The bolder you are the more you’ll stand out. Combining the redesign of work with AI and flex, you can make huge leaps in productivity. People make better choices in line with a culture that truly values outputs, not inputs and presenteeism. You’ll also drive wellbeing with lower stress levels, better work-life boundaries and people better able to manage the demands on their time and attention with access to a life they value.
LinkedIn Learning’s 2024 Workplace Learning Report shows that 4 out of 5 staff want to learn more about AI, and that 80% of people believe that learning adds purpose to their work. Training your people to use AI improves productivity and job satisfaction.
The most attractive roles and workplaces are the ones with greater flexibility and permission to use AI. These are the organisations of the future.
If you’ve been through the tough reality of restructuring recently, now is the time to redesign work, deliver better for the organisation, its people, its customers and community. We can’t stop here when a brighter future is just within reach.
Written by Tom Hovey from Diagram and Gillian Brookes, author of Flexperts