The smoothest reorg I've ever seen": lessons in collaborative org design

Most reorgs create confusion and friction. Spotify developed a more collaborative way of approaching org design, where teams help shape their missions, boundaries and structure.

This talk is a career experience report about taking the lessons from that work and applying a similar approach, which we now call Collaborative Org Design, years later at a fast-growing B2B scale-up facing a shift in strategy and team topology.

Joakim will share what worked, what didn’t, how his team used ideas from Team Topologies and self-selection, and how initial skepticism turned into comments like “this was the smoothest reorg I’ve ever seen.”

You’ll leave with practical patterns, pitfalls and facilitation tips for involving teams directly in org design.

Participant takeaways:

• how to prepare an organisation for collaborative org design
• lessons from teaching and aligning on Team Topologies concepts, shared heuristics and strategic context before involving teams
• how to facilitate collaborative org design sessions
• lessons learned around structuring workshops, iterating on designs, and helping teams shape missions, boundaries, and responsibilities
• how to support self-selection and address concerns along the way
• practical examples of navigating skepticism, handling common “what-ifs” and creating enough safety for people to participate meaningfully