Salem J. AbabnehHow I workMethod 03
Operating models that survive contact with reality
Redrawing the org chart is the part everyone can see, and the part that changes least. What decides whether a new operating model holds is whether the layers underneath it were moved as well.
The method
Structure is the last thing to design, not the first
It is downstream of the work. Decide what the organisation must be able to do, then shape the boxes around that.
Treat delegation of authority as its own layer, not a footnote
Who may approve what, up to what value, and what happens when they are unavailable. It earns its own layer because it is the one that silently overrides all the others: a process redesigned beautifully but left ambiguous about who may decide will quietly revert to the old path within a quarter, and the revert is invisible until something goes wrong.
Model the processes to a standard
BPMN 2.0, and modelled with automation in mind from the start, so the map is an asset for the next phase instead of documentation that ages in a drawer.
Check that roles can actually carry the model
A model that assumes capabilities the organisation does not have, and has no plan to build, is a wish.
Instrument it or it will drift
KPIs and SLAs, visible in something people actually look at. What is not measured returns to how it was within a year.
Where this comes from
Operating model design and institutional excellence work across government entities, including delegation-of-authority frameworks and service catalogues, and eight years inside a bank designing the processes rather than advising on them from outside.
The other methods
Changing how a large organization works? Let's talk.