Rewriting the rules of organizational design: Why stakeholder co-design matters
In moments of uncertainty, organizations often default to control. Yet lasting change rarely comes from rigid structures alone. By approaching organizational design as a co-creative, inclusive process, leaders can tap into collective insight, strengthen ownership, and build systems and cultures resilient enough to endure ongoing change.
In times of uncertainty, we are often tempted to return to control—top-down clarity, rigid plans, clean charts—as if structuring our ambition will lead us to a certain future. And yet, the organizations that are truly navigating uncharted territory are not defaulting to control. Instead, they are actively engaging stakeholders within and around them to co-shape new responses and collaboration models built to last. They draw on the collective wisdom and lived experience of the many to design for better outcomes. They approach organizational design as a co-creative act, a human-centered and systemic effort—a dialogue across levels that invites people to help shape the organizational and human systems they belong to.
Inclusive design for insight and ownership
Inclusion is often declared as a core value, but it is rarely treated as a design principle and translated into the fabric of how organizations actually operate. It tends to stay in the realm of cultural aspirations and is activated through HR programs. True inclusion, however, goes beyond statements of intent and programmatic efforts. It starts with inviting employees, customers, and stakeholders into the co-creation of the systems that shape their daily experience—the structures, workflows, interactions, rituals, and governance models.
This isn’t about achieving consensus. It is about strategic participation and drawing on distributed insight, recognizing that those closest to the work often hold the sharpest perspectives, are able to surface blind spots, challenge assumptions, and support better decision-making. It is also about fostering ownership, as people are far more committed to what they have helped to shape.
Organizational design labs as spaces for co-creation
This kind of inclusion comes to life not in aspiration and policy, but in action—in human-centered processes that make room for dialogue, shared understanding, and meaningful participation. It requires neutral, safe spaces where people can bring their perspectives, challenge assumptions, and shape better outcomes together.
Organizational design labs offer exactly this. They create a practical and psychologically safe environment to prototype new structures, trial emerging ways of working and decision-making, and test practices in real time alongside the people who live and experience them every day. We can think of these labs as test kitchens for the future, where teams explore and try on new roles and ways of collaborating before making these changes permanent.
These labs are best placed once the broader organizational design—the global or macro structure and business case—are in place and teams are ready to shape the next layer: the operating units, functions, and departments that sit within it. They typically run as a focused, time-bound phase of six to eight weeks, with a clear scope and mandate, facilitated by an external, neutral party. This allows for a guided, inclusive design process where participants can safely explore their organizational challenges and opportunities and build the capability to learn together systemically, beyond simply adapting to a restructure.
Designing culture by co-designing the organization
What design labs reveal is that organizational design is not just a structural or operational exercise. It is deep culture work. Every design decision signals what matters—how teams are structured, how decisions are made, how work is distributed and recognized. They shape how people experience belonging, power, trust, and purpose. Structures may appear neutral on paper, but they carry strong cultural messages in practice and between the lines.
When we co-design organizations with the people who shape and drive the work, we do not just improve efficiency; we strengthen relationships, deepen alignment, and enable more meaningful collaboration across the organization. This type of design process takes intentional, systemic engagement, not just at the surface, but at the roots. And with that, we unlock the collective energy that makes organizational change last.
A call to those who design the future
Organizations that will thrive tomorrow are the ones being co-designed today, with those who lead the work and the stakeholders they serve. This is a call to leaders ready to move beyond control and invite participation, who treat organizational design not as a top-down exercise, but as a shared, culture-shaping practice. So here is the invitation: How might you shape more resilient, co-owned organizations together with those around you? If you are exploring how to make organizational design more inclusive, adaptive, and human, I would love to connect.
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