Reimagine

Organizing for the future

May 2020

CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY

Any use of this material without specific permission of McKinsey & Company
is strictly prohibited
 Mary Meaney serves on McKinsey’s Shareholder’s Council,
McKinsey’s global Board of Directors

She co-leads McKinsey’s Organization Practice globally and is

co-author of Leading Organizations: Ten Timeless Truths

Dr. Mary Meaney Over the last 20+ years, she has served leading pharma,
consumer products, energy, basic materials, telecommunications,
Senior Partner in McKinsey’s and public sector organizations on their most important
Paris Office transformation, change management, top team alignment and
performance improvement efforts

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 After the shock, the imperative of our time
has become to shape the ‘new normal’
Focus today

From shock…
From shock… … to unfreezing … to a new normal

(Partial) lockdown (New) business as usual

Resolve Resilience Return Reimagine & Reform

Address the immediate Formulate broader Create a detailed plan to Redesign the organization based on known
challenges that COVID- resilience plans as the return the business back imperatives and the plethora of crisis-born
19 represents to the crisis upturns established to scale quickly, manage experiments and innovations – identify those that
institution's workforce, organizational and around the risk from virus might provide substantial uplift to economic and
customers, and business industry structures and resurges and knock-on social welfare
partners economic knock-on effects
Be clear about how the regulatory and competitive
effects emerge
environment in your industry may shift

Source: McKinsey & Company Publishing: Beyond coronavirus – The path to the next normal McKinsey & Company 3
Many leaders are turning more attention
toward how to organize

We removed boundaries and silos in ways no one

thought possible

We adopted new technology over night, not the usual

years
…CEOs are telling
How can we ever tell ourselves again that we can’t be
faster? We have proven that we can us that there is no
turning back…
Much of our middle management is feeling stranded –
they and I don’t know what value they added

We were too reliant on partners and the gig economy.

Our organization just wasn’t resilient

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“In the midst of every crisis
lies great opportunity”

- Albert Einstein

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 Structure Learning Now is the time to
reimagine the
organization, working on
Purpose Value
three fundamentals:
Decision-
Platforms
making
Culture Who we are

How we operate

Eco- How we grow

Talent
systems

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9 imperatives to organize for the future

Who we are How we operate How we grow

Take a stance on Radically flatten Adopt an ecosystem

purpose structure view

Sharpen your value Turbo charge Build data-rich tech

agenda decision-making platforms

Use culture as your Treat talent as scarcer Accelerate individual and

“secret sauce” than capital organizational learning

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HR has a critical role to play across all 9 imperatives

Who we are How we operate How we grow

Establishing and radiating Simplifying the organization Collaborating with HR tech
the organization’s purpose players and others in the
wider HR ecosystem

Mapping talent to value Capturing speed in decision- Build a digital, next

making from COVID times generation HR platform

Driving leadership and culture Driving strategic workforce Reskilling and upskilling
planning talent – and creating a
Taking employee experience Introducing next-generation learning culture
to next level performance management

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As an HR leader, what are your top 3
priorities for next 18-24 months?

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Take a stance on purpose

Respondents1 reporting that:

Bold moves
CVS Health exited tobacco products in line
with their purpose to “Help people on their
path to better health”

82% 42%
Activation
Johnson & Johnson gave every employee
an individual purpose finder to activate their
purpose: “We blend heart, science and
…it is important to …their organization’s
have a purpose purpose statements ingenuity to profoundly change the trajectory
drive impact of health for humanity”

Source: 1. McKinsey Organizational Purpose Survey Oct 2019 McKinsey & Company 10
Five steps to activate purpose and create shared meaning

1 2 3 4 5

Define purpose Test and articulate Design purpose Engage on Measure

aspiration purpose statement narrative purpose impact
Define superpowers Test alternatives to Create a narrative for Define the Create KPIs to
understand linkages all populations commitments to be measure impact
Assess ESGs1
made
Explore predictable ▪ Relevant Intervene where
Understand views
dilemmas Mobilize employees needed
from employees and ▪ Relatable
to build buy-in
other key Align top team
▪ Robust
stakeholders Engage broader
▪ Repeated stakeholders

1. Environmental, Social, and Governance

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Turbo charge decision-making

Only 20% of organizations make One retailer had a plan for curbside
high-quality, high-velocity decisions; delivery that would take 18 months;
62% waste more than half of once the crisis hit, they went
decision-making time1 operational in 2 days.

Source: 1. McKinsey Quarterly Survey of 1,600 executives focused on decision-making, 2018 McKinsey & Company 12
Lessons learned from rapid decision making in the
crisis can be applied in the next normal

Legacy decisions Survival minimum Strategic optimum

After crisis We are making a
Before crisis During crisis
month’s worth of
decisions every day at
the moment

Decision overflow Survival focus, no Decision making to We’re going to see

option not to decide value 5 years of innovation
happen in the next
Slow handovers High urgency Sustainable speed 12-18 months
Unclear roles and “All crisis team hands Empowered leaders
decision rights on deck”

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Treat talent as scarcer
than capital

Typically 2% of roles drive 80% People-led innovation

of the value; in most cases only 30% “Innovation is not about money.
of critical roles are filled with the right It’s about the people you have,
talent1 how you’re led, and how much
you get it”
- Apple

Source: 1. McKinsey Winning with Talent Survey, 2018 McKinsey & Company 14
Focus energy and talent on value-creating roles and assure clarity

Traditional approach Talent to value approach

Critical roles
New roles

▪ Define most important roles by value creation; typically 10% are CEO-1
▪ Not all roles in the same level matter (<50% of CEO-1, CEO-2)
▪ Typically you will discover high value roles in surprising places, relating to operations,
core technical skills and new capabilities, e.g. digital, analytics

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Shape the future: HR to transform and drive transformation

Pride, purpose Digitalize and Augment HR

and execution drive digitalization capabilities

Become Agile Evolve the

yourself HRBP role

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 How to set yourself up
for success:

For years HR 1. Define where you want to be excellent

and where it suffices to pass the bar
professionals have
wanted a seat at the 2. Start from business strategy
and derive people, culture and
proverbial table.
organizational implications along the
Now they have that 9 imperatives
seat in a major way.
3. Define your core themes of change
and launch a series of implementation
- Johnny C. Taylor Jr., CEO Society for Human
Resource Management interventions – course-correct as needed

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 “The current situation
How much do offers unprecedented
you agree with opportunities for
the following
statement? HR to drive fundamental
change”

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Discussion and Questions

1 Desktop

Where do you see new

opportunities emerging? Mobile

2 1)

What do you as HR leaders need

2)
to do to capture these opportunities?

3
Are there other questions
on your mind?

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Discussion and Questions

1 Desktop

Where do you see new

opportunities emerging? Mobile

1)

2)

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Discussion and Questions

Desktop

Mobile

2 1)

What do you as HR leaders need

2)
to do to capture these opportunities?

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Discussion and Questions

Desktop

Mobile

1)

2)

3
Are there other questions
on your mind?

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A final thought…

“It is not the strongest

of the species that survives,
nor the most intelligent,
but the one that
is most adaptable to change”

Charles Darwin

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