In our drive for structure, we should always remember that structure is there to support an outcome, and is not an end goal in its own right.
Leaders and consultants alike are guilty of creating frameworks and matrices. McKinsey’s famous MECE (mutually exclusive, completely exhaustive) is a wonderful triumph of the intellect over the real world.
Organisations are messy. People are messy. Paths are not linear. The structure is useful as a model, but the best leaders know when breaking them gets us to a better outcome than simply a neat diagram.
