Organizational Design Is Just Relationship Design
- Jules Siegel-Hawley
- Mar 20
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 23
When something feels off in a company, the first instinct is usually: Let’s reorg. Maybe marketing isn’t aligned with product. Maybe customer success is stuck between sales and ops. Maybe decision-making is slow, and no one knows who’s accountable for what.
So leadership moves the boxes around, hoping a new structure will fix the friction. But friction isn’t the enemy. Friction is where relationships live.
A reorg assumes the problem is where people sit. More often, the problem is how people work together. Reorgs don’t solve broken relationships; they just rearrange them.
Org Design Equals Relationship Design
At its core, an organization is just a web of relationships.
A reporting line is a relationship—power, trust, and negotiation.
A decision-making process is a relationship—clarity, influence, and compromise.
A cross-functional workflow is a relationship—expectations, conflict, and collaboration.
And like any relationship, these systems can be intentionally designed or left to evolve in chaos. Companies that scale well don’t fixate on org charts—they design for human dynamics:
Decision Rights – Who has authority? How do we navigate disagreement?
Productive Tension – Where do teams push and pull against each other in a way that fuels progress rather than stalls it?
Power Dynamics – When priorities collide, how do we negotiate without escalating everything to the top?
When these systems are strong, teams move faster, alignment improves, and reorgs become the exception, not the default.
The Hidden Costs of Avoiding Relationship Work
When tension surfaces in an organization, most leaders see it as a problem to be eliminated. But tension isn’t the issue--unspoken tension is.
Avoiding the real conversation leads to:
Constant debates over “who owns what.”
Middle managers struggling to balance conflicting priorities.
Teams working around each other instead of with each other.
These are not structure problems. They’re relationship problems. And relationships, when left unattended, default to resentment, disengagement, and quiet disobedience.
How to Fix It: Design for Relationships, Not Just Roles
If your team is struggling, don’t start with structure—start with interaction.
Clarify Decision-Making Authority
People don’t need more process. They need to know: Who decides? Who informs? Who executes?
Use a framework like RAPID (Recommend, Agree, Perform, Input, Decide) to make decision ownership explicit.
Build in Productive Friction
The best teams don’t eliminate tension; they manage it.
Create structured spaces where teams surface and resolve conflicts before they fester.
Design for Collaboration, Not Just Reporting Lines
Org charts tell you where people sit. They don’t tell you how work flows.
Map how teams actually communicate, escalate, and align—not just who they report to.
Final Thought: The Real Work of Leadership
A great org structure won’t save weak relationships. But strong relationships will always create better structure. If your company is growing fast, resist the temptation to move the boxes around. Instead, fix how people talk, listen, disagree, and decide. That’s what will determine whether your company thrives or fractures under its own weight.
Where have you seen org design break down in practice? Let’s discuss.
