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OM Layer 01 — Operating Model

People & Organisation Design.

Organisational design built around accountability, not legacy hierarchy. Structure that follows the operating model, not the other way around.

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The key principles

How CN approaches this work.

01
Structure follows strategy and operating model
The single most common mistake in organisational design is starting with the org chart. Structure should be the output of operating model design, not the input. The question is not "how do we reorganise what we have?" but "what structure does our operating model require?"
02
Design for accountability, not comfort
Structures that minimise disruption to existing roles and reporting lines produce structures that cannot deliver the operating model. Accountability must be clear, specific and exclusive — what you own, what you decide, what you escalate. Overlapping accountabilities are a design failure.
03
Spans of control are a design decision, not a legacy
Most organisations inherit their spans of control. Designing them deliberately requires understanding what management work actually looks like in each role — the cognitive load, the coordination requirement, the development responsibility. A span of eight for a manager of knowledge workers doing complex work is very different from a span of eight for a manager of routine process workers.
04
Capability gaps are a programme risk, not an HR matter
The gap between the capability the current workforce has and the capability the target operating model requires is a programme risk. It must be assessed, quantified and addressed in the programme plan — not delegated to HR as a separate workstream.
05
The transition is as important as the destination
The move from current to target structure requires as much design attention as the target structure itself. TUPE implications, ring-fencing decisions, selection processes, notification sequences — all must be planned before announcement and connected to the change management programme.
What good looks like
  • ✓Structure designed from operating model requirements, not from existing reporting lines
  • ✓Every role has a clear accountability statement — what it owns, decides and escalates
  • ✓Management spans designed deliberately, not inherited
  • ✓Capability gap assessment completed before operating model is finalised
  • ✓Transition plan fully designed before restructure is announced
  • ✓Change management programme running in parallel with structural design
Warning signs
  • ✗Restructure announced before the operating model is designed
  • ✗Role profiles that describe what the current person does, not what the role requires
  • ✗No capability assessment — assuming current people can do new roles
  • ✗Accountability overlaps left deliberately to avoid difficult decisions
  • ✗Transition managed as a communications exercise rather than a people programme
Diagnostic questions

Use these in client conversations or team reviews to quickly surface where the real issues are.

QIf you removed the names from the org chart and designed from scratch for your operating model, would you get the same structure?
QFor each senior role: can the role holder articulate specifically what they own, what they decide without escalation, and what they escalate?
QWhere are the accountability overlaps in the current structure — and who has agreed to remove them?
Full Practitioner Guide

The complete methodology is in the CN Portal.

The full guide covers: operating model-to-structure methodology, role architecture design, accountability framework construction, spans and layers analysis, capability assessment approach, TUPE and transition planning, and integration with the change management programme.

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