Implementing Structure

Companies start out to do something (citation needed) - create a product, provide a service or invent.  At the start companies are smaller, and can move very quickly to adjust or change their plans.  This agility works well with smaller groups since there’s a smaller number of individuals who need to be involved.  These smaller numbers make communication and expectation setting relatively easy.  As the group becomes larger, however, this becomes more difficult to maintain.

This is where structure comes in.  You can’t exist without any, and you can’t ONLY have structure… but without structure larger groups become inefficient.  As the group expands it becomes harder for information to reach the right folks at the right time and expectations become muddled.  The solution to these challenges is to find the right balance of structure for the group.

Structure can be something of a dirty word.. After all, it means we can no longer run and do what we want to… we have to follow rules and do things that aren’t building/moving forward.  These are valid points - structure does require us to follow some set of rules.  Structure does take some time away from other, seemingly productive, activities.  Structure does make us stop and “play by the rules”.

At its extreme (or if I’m being honest this tends to happen more often than not) structure becomes enshrined and is either blindly followed, or pushed to an extreme.  At this point it transitions from a useful tool to help guide us to something that is toxic.  This is the type of structure that makes someone skeptical that any structure can be useful.

Structure, however, helps us improve how we operate at size.  Structure gives us a universal expectation of what should happen when.  This makes it easier for new team members to join in, and helps ensure existing team members know what to expect.  These expectations can range from how releases occur to what is communicated when to how resources are assigned and utilized.

Exactly what structure looks like and how it is implemented will vary based on the needs and the organization, but there are some basic building blocks that tend to show up everywhere around things like communication and planning.  The thing to keep in mind is that the form it takes should be tailored to the environment it’s in… there is no “one size fits all”.