Organisational Design Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Organizational Development Managers, HR Business Partners and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-OD-007

Before you join: Participants should have practical experience in HR, organizational development, business operations, transformation or line management.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Organizational design determines how work, authority, information and resources are arranged to deliver strategy. When structures no longer match customer needs, growth plans, regulatory duties or cost pressures, organizations often experience slow decisions, duplicated work, unclear accountability and overloaded managers. A redesign must address more than an organization chart: it requires choices about processes, decision rights, roles, governance, workforce capacity and transition arrangements.

This course equips participants to diagnose design problems and develop practical organizational design options. Participants use the Galbraith Star Model to connect strategy with structure, processes, rewards and people. They assess operating models, map value streams, set design principles, evaluate structural alternatives, define decision rights and develop role charters. The course also covers spans of control, management layers, shared services, governance forums, workforce planning, performance measures and implementation risk.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings with cases, group analysis, design simulations and structured peer review. Participants apply methods to realistic situations such as a bank centralizing operations, a public agency combining regional services, or a multinational clarifying global and country accountabilities. Each participant leaves with an organizational design diagnostic, a target operating model blueprint, design-option assessment and a 90-day application plan. The five-day course is available in classrooms in more than 50 cities or live online, runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, and includes a certificate of completion.

The course suits HR and organizational development professionals, business leaders, transformation teams and operational managers who contribute to redesign initiatives or need to make better-informed design decisions.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose organizational performance issues using design principles, evidence and root-cause analysis
  • Apply the Galbraith Star Model to align strategy, structure, processes, rewards and people
  • Map value streams, customer journeys and handoffs to identify operating model gaps
  • Develop structural options using grouping choices, spans of control and layer analysis
  • Define decision rights, governance forums and role accountabilities using RACI matrices
  • Build workforce capacity estimates, role charters and skills matrices for target designs
  • Assess organizational design options through cost, risk, customer value and feasibility criteria
  • Produce a target operating model blueprint and phased implementation plan

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Diagnose whether performance problems arise from structure, processes, roles or governance
  • Create credible design options rather than relying on organization-chart changes alone
  • Facilitate evidence-based discussions on spans, layers and decision authority
  • Write clearer role charters and governance mandates for redesigned teams
  • Present a structured organizational design recommendation to senior stakeholders

For your organisation

  • Reduces duplicated work and unresolved handoffs between functions or business units
  • Clarifies accountability for decisions, services, controls and customer outcomes
  • Improves redesign quality before costly restructuring or technology implementation begins
  • Aligns workforce capacity and specialist skills with strategic operating requirements
  • Strengthens implementation planning for reorganizations, shared services and service transformations

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can frame an organizational design challenge and establish evidence-based design principles.

  • Organizational design distinguishes structure, operating model, culture and workforce planning
  • Design triggers identified through strategy shifts, performance gaps and growth
  • Galbraith Star Model links strategy, structure, processes, rewards and people
  • Current-state diagnosis separates symptoms, root causes, constraints and design choices
  • Design principles convert strategic intent into explicit organizational architecture criteria
  • Scope statements define business units, geographies, services and decision boundaries

Participants can analyze how work creates value and identify operating model requirements.

  • Strategy maps translate priorities into required capabilities, accountabilities and operating choices
  • Customer journeys expose handoffs, failure demand and ownership gaps
  • SIPOC diagrams define suppliers, inputs, process boundaries, outputs and customers
  • Value-stream mapping locates delays, rework, queues and non-value-adding activities
  • Capability maps distinguish differentiating, enabling and transactional work
  • Operating Model Canvas records core processes, governance, locations and information flows
  • Service catalogs clarify products, service levels, owners and internal customers

Participants can develop and compare structural options against strategic and operational requirements.

  • Functional, divisional, matrix and network structures compared against strategic requirements
  • Grouping choices assess customer, product, geography, process and professional expertise
  • Span-of-control analysis tests managerial load, work variety and staff capability
  • Layering analysis identifies unnecessary hierarchy, escalation routes and managerial duplication
  • Structural options assessed using design principles, trade-offs and implementation risks
  • Organization charts distinguish reporting lines, teams, roles and legal entities
  • Shared services, centers of expertise and business partners allocate specialist work

Participants can define process ownership, decision authority and governance arrangements for a target design.

  • End-to-end process maps reveal ownership breaks and duplicated approval steps
  • RACI matrices assign responsible, accountable, consulted and informed role relationships
  • Decision-rights inventories identify delegated, retained, joint and escalated decisions
  • Governance forums specify mandates, membership, cadence, inputs and decision records
  • Escalation protocols set authority thresholds, response times and exception paths
  • Meeting architecture connects operational reviews, performance dialogues and strategic governance

Participants can translate target operating requirements into roles, capacity and workforce actions.

  • Job architecture groups roles into families, levels, career paths and standards
  • Role charters define purpose, outputs, accountabilities, interfaces and delegated authority
  • Workload analysis converts demand volumes and activity times into capacity requirements
  • FTE calculations distinguish productive hours, allowances, vacancies and peak demand
  • Skills matrices identify critical capabilities, proficiency gaps and development priorities
  • Make-buy-partner choices assess control, cost, capability and service risk
  • Workforce transition plans sequence redeployment, recruitment, reskilling and exit actions

Participants can align performance measures, behavioral mechanisms and controls with organizational design choices.

  • Performance measures align team outputs with customer, financial and control outcomes
  • Performance scorecards connect strategic objectives, measures, targets and initiatives
  • Reward mechanisms reinforce collaboration, accountability, quality and customer outcomes
  • Informal networks reveal influence patterns beyond formal reporting relationships
  • Culture diagnostics test stated values against routines, stories and consequences
  • Recognition practices strengthen desired behaviors during organizational change
  • Control frameworks balance autonomy, assurance, segregation and regulatory obligations

Participants can build a fact-based case for change and evaluate alternative organizational designs.

  • Diagnostic hypotheses connect performance evidence to structural and process causes
  • Stakeholder interviews elicit pain points, informal workarounds and design constraints
  • Baseline metrics measure cost, cycle time, quality, engagement and service
  • Cause analysis traces recurring problems to process, role and governance failures
  • Option papers compare benefits, disbenefits, dependencies, costs and risks
  • Design criteria weight strategic fit, customer value, feasibility and control
  • Scenario testing examines demand shocks, growth plans and regulatory change

Participants can plan the transition from current-state arrangements to a workable target design.

  • Change impact assessments map affected roles, processes, systems and locations
  • Transition-state designs maintain accountability while new structures are implemented
  • Implementation roadmaps sequence approvals, appointments, process changes and communications
  • Stakeholder maps identify sponsors, resisters, influencers and communication needs
  • Consultation plans address employee representatives, legal duties and local requirements
  • Risk registers assign owners, mitigations, triggers and contingency actions
  • Change communications explain rationale, role impacts, timing and support channels

Participants can prepare a justified organizational design recommendation with controls and decision requirements.

  • Business cases quantify implementation costs, recurring savings, benefits and payback
  • Cost baselines separate people, contractor, technology, facilities and transition costs
  • Benefits maps trace design changes to measurable operational outcomes
  • Control assessments test segregation of duties, audit trails and accountability
  • Employment-law review identifies consultation, selection and contractual change obligations
  • Data governance assigns ownership, access rights, quality controls and retention
  • Board papers present recommendations, trade-offs, evidence and requested decisions

Participants can consolidate design decisions into a usable blueprint and prioritized action plan.

  • Design blueprint consolidates structure, processes, governance, roles and implementation actions
  • Target operating model narrative explains how value will be created and delivered
  • First-90-day plan prioritizes decisions, dependencies, owners, milestones and measures
  • Design scorecards track adoption, service performance, cost and risk indicators
  • Feedback loops capture user experience, exceptions and unintended consequences
  • Review cadence triggers adjustments using performance data and stakeholder feedback
  • Personal application plans define a live design issue and next actions

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Organizational design diagnostic template
  2. Design principles and evaluation criteria
  3. Target operating model blueprint
  4. Structural options assessment matrix
  5. RACI decision-rights template
  6. 90-day organizational design application plan

Who should attend

  • Organizational Development Managers — lead or support organization-wide design and change initiatives
  • HR Business Partners — translate business priorities into role, structure and workforce changes
  • HR Directors — set design governance and evaluate redesign proposals
  • Transformation Managers — coordinate operating model changes across functions and business units
  • Operations Managers — resolve process ownership, handoff and accountability problems
  • Business Unit Leaders — make informed choices about structures, layers and decision authority

Skills and tools covered

Organizational diagnosisOperating model designStructural analysisDecision rights designWorkforce capacity planningChange implementation

Tools and standards

Galbraith Star Model, SIPOC, RACI matrix, Operating Model Canvas

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce models, followed by case analysis, group design work, simulations and facilitated review. Participants diagnose organizational symptoms, interpret operating data, compare structural options and draft decision-rights arrangements. Cases reflect common redesign settings, including service centralization, growth-related complexity, post-merger integration and public-sector service reform. Throughout the course, participants use templates that can be adapted to their own organization. The final sessions focus on converting analysis into a practical design blueprint and application plan.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience in HR, organizational development, business operations, transformation or line management. They should be familiar with how their organization is structured, how work moves between teams, and the business priorities shaping their area. Experience with organization charts, job descriptions, workforce plans or process maps is useful. No prior organizational design qualification is required, and participants do not need specialist knowledge of finance, statistics, employment law or consulting methods. The course explains the required models and analytical techniques from first use.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have practical exposure to HR, operations, transformation or line management. You do not need prior organizational design training or specialist consulting experience.

Bring a current or recent organizational issue you can use as a reference point. A sanitized organization chart, process map, workforce plan or strategy document can help, but is not required.

The course is designed for HR and organizational development professionals, transformation staff, operations managers and business leaders. It is especially useful for people involved in restructuring, service redesign, shared services or post-merger changes.

This course focuses on designing the organizational system: structure, roles, processes, decision rights and governance. Change management focuses more on adoption and communications, while workforce planning focuses more specifically on future talent supply and demand.

Participants can use the diagnostic, design-principles template, RACI matrix and option-assessment tools on a current business issue. The methods are suitable for full reorganizations and smaller problems such as unclear handoffs or excessive approvals.

The course runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, with approximately 6.5 contact hours daily. Time is divided between instructor briefings, cases, group analysis, design simulations and individual application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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