Focus on What Matters: An Executive

Focus on What Matters: An Executive’s Guide to Simplifying Organizational Design and Creating a Culture of Performance

Kimberly Askew | 2021

Abstract

An organization’s people, internal processes, and ability to plan well for the future all play crucial roles in determining its success. Yet, organizational design is rarely top of mind for today’s executives. Instead, as leaders, we have become bogged down with nuance and minute details, often turning to the latest management techniques to remedy the issues we face. In doing so, organizational leaders may be addressing the symptoms of a problem rather than the issue.

The publication, Focus on What Matters: An Executive’s Guide to Simplifying Organizational Design and Creating a Culture of Performance offers a different perspective that suggests business leaders must focus their attention on only three things. It proposes a new design of an organizational structure referred to as the P³ model, which consists of three dimensions: people, processes, and planning. The ‘ACE’ framework also outlined in this publication seeks to evaluate each of these components of organizational design for alignment. This model requires that leaders assess the challenge at hand, communicate the necessary change, and execute the proposed solution quickly and systematically. In this way, it positions organizational design as a management tool, fully accounting for the impact of the design model on organizational culture. More importantly, it specifically seeks to create a high-performance culture that governs every aspect of the work.

This book aims to drive home the point that alignment among the three dimensions of organizational design must be achieved if a high-performance culture is to be developed. It offers a step-by-step guide on why they matter and how you can maneuver each component to work in tandem to move an organization towards operating at peak performance. The unique blending of the P³ and ‘ACE’ models explore the intersection between organizational design and organizational culture, serving as a framework that helps executive leaders relate well to challenges facing those in the C-Suite and offers highly hands-on solutions and recommendations. It is a reminder to organizational leaders that when chaos ensues, and it inevitably will, to take a step back and focus on what matters. People. Processes. Planning. Everything else is secondary.