Was working this week on organizational design, and ran across Emerson and Stewart’s four truths about organizational design.

1. The organizations’ core competency distinguishes how it delivers customer value. Know what it is and design with that in mind.

2. An organization structure exists to facilitate the work.

3. Any work that does not deliver customer value should go away.

4. Stakeholders are key to a good design. They create shared value and momentum for the change.

I love #2 – I think we forget that.