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Menschenkenner – Systemische Organisations- und Personalentwicklung

Case 01

When the organisation grows – but the leadership structure does not grow with it

Leadership as a response to increasing complexity.

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Regional association of one of Germany's largest welfare organisations136 – more than 2,000 employees

The situation

  • As the organisation grew, organisational complexity, the number of parallel projects and the demands on leadership rose significantly.
  • Several formal overload notifications came in from different areas. The leadership organisation had reached its limits.
  • Structures and responsibilities that had evolved over time lagged behind the increased complexity.
  • Managers took on additional tasks without roles, decision-making channels and resources being adjusted.

Our perspective

  • The managers were highly committed. What was missing was a structure that matched the increased complexity.
  • The overload was not caused by individual behaviour, but by a leadership logic that had not kept pace with growth.
  • New challenges were distributed across existing roles instead of developing the leadership architecture further.

Our focus was on developing the leadership system – not on optimising individuals.

What we did

  • Systemic organisational diagnosis based on 84 interviews.
  • Organisation-wide leadership development programme.
  • Parallel supervision process for the executive management.
  • Joint strategy and development workshops.
  • Clarification of roles, decision premises and responsibilities.
  • Preparing and supporting the introduction of an additional leadership level.

What changed

  • An additional leadership level distributes responsibility more effectively.
  • Roles and responsibilities are significantly clearer.
  • Decisions are made and implemented faster.
  • A shared systemic understanding of leadership across all leadership levels.
  • Leadership is firmly established as a function that shapes the organisation.

Particularly relevant

  • Decision premises
  • Architecture of responsibility
  • Leadership as an organisational function

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