Managing the Burden ofInheritance

As a new executive, the team you inherit may not be the team you want for the future, but until you get around to creating your ideal team, you need to make do with what you have. A Deloitte article talks about how you can work with your inherited team, how to deal with straight- and dotted-line reporting, and the ideal timelines for bringing in change.

- Ajit Kambil

Donald Rumsfeld, the US Secretary of Defense in 2004, noted, “As you know, you go to war with the army you have. They’re not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.” Similarly, in an executive transition the organisation you inherit might not be structured as you might want or wish to have it later. Yet you will have to make it work to get things done until you can create the organisation you want. This essay deals with some considerations in organising what you have and moving toward what you want from your organisation.

Teams can be temporary — designed to fulfill a specific project — or they could be a more permanent and recurring structure like a leadership team designed to bring multiple skills and perspectives to changing business needs. Organisations are even more stable structures — formalising reporting lines, situating staff in clearer roles to do routine or functionally specialised work, and creating focus and capacity to get work done on an ongoing basis.

In our transition labs (Deloitte’s Executive Transition Lab helps CXOs make an effective transition into their new role), we often find executives grappling with four organisation design questions:

1. How many people should directly report to me?

2. How should I structure organisation reporting lines and divide up work?

3. Should I have dotted line reports and extended leadership structures?

4. How should I move from my current inherited organisation to a future state model?

There are no simple answers to these questions, but based on our experience with transition labs we can offer some guiding principles and considerations. 

Defining the number of direct reports