How to create more DEI and human-centred organisational design practice?

Organisational design is something I have been increasingly involved in, generally at the back of strategy reviews and when developing new analytical and learning functions for various organisations. Most recently, I completed an executive masterclass at the Henley Business School, which helped consolidate and formalise some of the experience and knowledge I have acquired over the years. However, it felt strongly rooted in private sector values and profit-making. Yet the majority of my work in this area is with charity, philanthropic or voluntary organisations – where relationships matter, people are the centre of focus and there is a different expectation of how the process should feel.

Naturally, I was very excited to join a discussion group with the author of a recent book on human-centred approaches to organisational design[1]. And I liked how it placed more emphasis on responsible management, innovation, sustainability and healthy stakeholder relationships. However, I was left with similar questions or concerns:

1. What is the role of governance, transparency and accountability in organisational design?
2. How can one create a process that reflects more people-centred values and principles?
3. How can the process create more meaningful opportunities for engagement?

In other words, I was still keen to find how one can create more diverse, equitable and inclusive (DEI) and human-centred organisational design practice. Below are some ideas:

• Organisational design practice and education or professional development courses should link better with organisational change theory and practice. And more emphasis on process and lived experience is needed, on identifying an adequate pace of change and on using more influence than power to create change. This should minimise the number of organisational designs that look wonderful on paper but use a technocratic, non-DEI process that exacerbate inequalities and power dynamics that get in the way of impact for all.

• Most organisational design exercises involve the creation of at least one group with decision-making powers – membership tends to be based on level of seniority (e.g. executives). This creates a governance model that is more transactional and goes with the existing power dynamics and systems in the organisation – and as a consequence, it exacerbates inequalities and practices that get in the way of diverse, equitable and inclusive (DEI) working environments. But there are real opportunities to create systemic change if more effort is made to build more DEI-focused governance models. This means an honest discussion of who sits at the table and who is absent, and what that says about power dynamics, bias and DEI practice.

• There should be more focus on transparency and accountability throughout the process. For example, documentation could help track who and how decisions were made and the extent to which evidence supports them. Transparency makes it easier to hold people accountable and to constructively challenge problematic power dynamics and structures. Such practices can create real trust between decision-makers and employees, and tackle environments where office politics and personal agendas play a big role in decision-making.  

• Meaningful engagement, as opposed to consultative or extractive participation, should be more of a priority. An obvious concern is how to manage different expectations and a lack of consensus but in a previous blog I talked about the use of “consent” as an alternative. Consent enables meaningful participation, co-creation and shared decision-making power – and as a result, it creates buy-in as well as a sense of respect for all. And there is plenty of evidence now that more DEI teams and processes create better strategies and outcomes.

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[1] Magalhães, R (2020) Designing Organisation Design: A human-Centred Approach. OUP Oxford.

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