# Don't Break What is Working By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2024-09-07 Organizations reorganize frequently. The first rule of reorganization is not to break what is working. This might seem obvious. It is tough to implement this rule in practice. It is so challenging to implement because it requires breaking a fundamental value. Almost all of us were raised to be fair. To our child-aged brains, fairness means treating everybody the same. If an organization faces reduced personnel, this would mean treating every department the same. Every department should not be treated the same when implementing required reductions in personnel. Or, if it turned out to be “fair,” it would do so by happenstance rather than design. When implementing a reduction in personnel, the company should look at what is working (i.e., adding value). If a part of the company is working, leave it alone (if one can). If the organization is to survive, it should build on what is currently working. One would benefit from examining what elements are working and what coherent strategy could be formed around those units that work. This isn’t fair, but it is smart. Each reduction entails a genuine human cost. It is painful and unfortunate. It would be preferable if one could find other ways to restructure and reduce costs. Sometimes, organizations can find those alternatives. Other times, they cannot. When they can’t, they benefit from clarity about what values will be used to make unpleasant decisions. This step is often skipped, as leaders would instead muddle through rather than admit to themselves the values that are incoherently and inconsistently undergirding their choices. This is foolish and unproductive. Stating the decision logic helps everybody know where they stand and what the organization is attempting to accomplish, and uniformly reducing the size of something that doesn’t work only results in a smaller version of something that doesn’t work. Given the benefits of economies of scale, being “fair” by implementing reductions results in something that doesn’t make sense. Retaining and building on what is currently working provides a viable path forward. One isn’t assured success, but breaking what is presently working will almost assuredly lead to failure. #### Related Items [[Organization]] [[Management]] [[Decision-making]] [[Layoffs]] [[Equality]] [[Work]] [[Value]]