Corporate reorganisations are like moving furniture in a house you’ve lived in too long. At first, it feels exciting. You imagine the space looking fresher, cleaner, more efficient. But once you’ve moved the sofa, you realise the walls haven’t shifted at all. The same patterns remain, just rearranged.
Reorganisations are usually sold as efficiency drives or alignment initiatives. The PowerPoint slides show new shapes and colours. Boxes move, titles change, and people smile nervously while updating their email signatures. But beneath the surface, reorganisations reveal something far more interesting than structure. They reveal power.
Watch closely during a reorganisation and you’ll see where influence truly lives. It’s rarely where the boxes suggest. Some people lose formal authority but retain control through relationships, knowledge, or quiet resistance. Others gain lofty titles but little impact.
Reorganisations are less about design and more about behaviour. You can redraw the chart, but unless you change how decisions are made and who makes them, very little shifts. Real power lies in who controls information, who shapes the story, and who gets consulted informally before decisions are final.
The best leaders treat reorganisation as a diagnostic tool, not a cosmetic exercise. They observe who clings to old roles and who adapts gracefully. They use the moment to clarify decision rights, remove bottlenecks, and make accountability visible. They understand that structural change is only meaningful if it changes how people think and act.
The irony is that many organisations spend months on charts and barely a week on behaviours. Yet it’s the latter that determines success. Without addressing culture and communication, even the cleverest structure becomes another version of the same system.
Key Takeaways
- Reorganisations expose power, they don’t create it.
- Behavioural change matters more than box design.
- Influence often sits outside formal hierarchy.
- Transparency turns confusion into accountability.
- True alignment comes from clarity, not cosmetics.
Try This
After your next reorganisation, ask your team who they actually go to for decisions or advice. The names that surface reveal the real structure of influence. Use that knowledge to formalise accountability where it already exists.
Closing Thought
If this resonates, share it with anyone about to announce a reorganisation. Remind them that moving boxes is easy; moving behaviour is where leadership begins.
