Core organization design frameworks.
We know the joke: consultants use way too many frameworks. But these are our favorites. Rooted in Jay Galbraith’s methodology and refined over years of practice, these are the essential models we rely on to guide our clients.
Three roles that make a matrix work.
Matrix Manager
- Serve effectively on both leadership teams, advocating for priorities and taking difficult positions when needed, such as balancing function needs like IT security with business goals like faster product launches.
- Bridge insights between groups by connecting key perspectives, such as bringing customer feedback to product development and sharing technical constraints with sales.
- Ensure clarity on who owns what with peers and other stakeholders where it may not be clear.
- Build strong networks and real relationships to understand the interests of your partners.
A matrix shares power between two or more dimensions, such as function and geography, or product and customer. A person in a matrix has two bosses, each representing an equally important strategic dimension, and is expected to give both perspectives equal weight in their decisions. The matrix exists because some roles genuinely need to hold two worldviews at once: a regional sales manager maximizing overall sales while pursuing the sales most profitable in her region.
How we use it with clients
We treat the matrix as a tool to be used sparingly and deliberately, not as a default answer to complexity. With clients, we first test whether a matrix is truly needed or whether a simpler structure with strong lateral mechanisms would do. Where a matrix is the right call, we focus the work on making it livable: defining which dimension leads on which decisions, building the shared goals and reward systems that keep both bosses aligned, and equipping managers to resolve tensions themselves rather than pushing every dispute upward.