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At the moment, confidence in leadership is at an all time low, according to the 2024 Leadership Confidence Index. Its natural to assume the cause is born of an individual failurethe leader lacks competence, their boss didnt prepare or train them well, they dont care about how others experience them. And many of these reasons certainly hold true. But in my experience working with senior executives as an executive coach and organization design consultant, bad leadership is often manufactured by an organization designed, albeit unintentionally, to produce bad leaders. In the intricate dance of organizations, design and leadership are the two central partners. The design of an organization directly shapes the effectiveness, decision-making, and moral authority of its leaders. When the choreography of design falters, leadership stumbles. Organizations are not mere collections of departments, roles, technologies and processes. They are ecosystems where clarity, alignment, and purpose must harmonize to drive value. When these elements are absent, leaders are often set up to fail, sometimes even before they realize it. Bad organization design is not just a structural flaw; it is a leadership hazard. Heres why. The Trap of Misaligned Structures When an organizations structure does not align with its strategy, leaders are forced to work against the grain. Imagine a company whose strategic focus is innovation but whose design over-prioritizes cost control. Leaders in such environments are left juggling contradictory priorities, often at the expense of the very innovation they are supposed to champion. For example, a global tech company I worked with set out to become a leader in AI innovation but maintained a rigid, hierarchical structure optimized for minimizing operational expenses. Mid-level leaders found themselves without the budgetary flexibility or cross-departmental collaboration needed to pursue innovative initiatives. As a result, the company fell behind competitors who had better-aligned structures. Misalignment also breeds fragmentation. When leaders work at cross-purposes with other leaders, it signals to those they lead to put their own agendas first. Such self-involvement frays the organization, disabling it from working coherently. Leaders in silos may excel at optimizing their narrow domains but fail to see the bigger picture. This creates turf wars, miscommunication, and a lack of cohesion, leaving leaders to expend precious energy managing conflict instead of driving impact. A 2021 study published in the Journal of Economics Finance and Management Studies showed a direct correlation between misaligned organization design and poor decision making. Ambiguity as the Enemy of Accountability Ambiguity in roles, decision-making authority, or performance expectations is another byproduct of poor design. Leaders operating in such environments face an uphill battle in creating accountability. Without clear boundaries or metrics, decision-making slows, trust erodes, and blame becomes a substitute for ownership. Consider a retail chain that failed to clearly define the responsibilities of its regional managers versus its store managers. When sales declined in multiple locations, no one was certain who was responsible for addressing the issue. This lack of clarity not only delayed corrective actions but also created friction and mistrust among the leadership team. Leaders thrive when their roles are defined with precision and their scope of influence is clear. In contrast, bad design fosters shadow systemsunofficial ways of getting things done that undermine formal processes. Leaders operating in these shadows may gain temporary wins but at the cost of sustainable performance and credibility. Culture as a Reflection of Design Organizational culture is not an abstraction; it is the byproduct of what an organization rewards, tolerates, and ignores. Bad design amplifies toxic behaviors, making it harder for leaders to model the values they preach. For instance, if the incentive system rewards short-term gains at the expense of collaboration, leaders will struggle to inspire teamwork. A financial services firm, for example, implemented a bonus system heavily weighted toward individual performance metrics. While some employees thrived, cross-department collaboration plummeted. Leaders trying to foster teamwork found themselves at odds with a system that rewarded competition over cooperation. Culture is experienced at the organization’s seamsthe places where different parts of the organization connect. When these seams are poorly stitched, leaders are left grappling with inconsistent norms, conflicting metrics, and territorial self-interest, making it nearly impossible to lead cohesively. Research suggests that aligning business strategy with organizational culture can significantly impact performance. According to a 2019 Workplace Accountability study with over 40,000 participants, 93% of those surveyed were unable to align their work or take accountability for desired results. Fully one-third felt that their priorities change frequently, creating confusion. Further, 84% of those surveyed cited the way leaders behave as the single most important factor influencing accountability in their organizations. And yet just 15% of leaders have successfully clearly defined and broadly communicated their key results. The Weight of Overcompensation When leaders inherit the consequences of bad design, they often try to compensate with sheer willpower, which can manifest as micromanagement. While this may yield short-term results, it is unsustainable and typically accelerates burnoutnot just for the leaders but for their teams as well. Overcompensation also distracts leaders from their primary role: to shape vision, align resources, and empower others. For instance, in a manufacturing company struggling with outdated processes, a plant manager took on the role of personally reviewing every operational detail to ensure quality. While this approach temporarily improved output, it left the manager exhausted and demoralized the team, who felt micromanaged and disempowered. Designing for Leadership Success If bad design leads to bad leadership, the reverse is also true: good design enables great leadership. An organization that prioritizes clarity, alignment, and purpose creates an environment where leaders can thrive. Heres how: Align Structure with Strategy: Start by clearly defining the organizations strategic objectives. Map out how each division, team, and role contributes to achieving these goals. Distribute decision rights clearly across an organization, and clarify who gets to make which decisions, with what authority and resources. Engage leaders in cross-functional strategy discussions to ensure their buy-in on how their teams contribute. Clarify Roles and Metrics: Define every roles responsibilities in granular detail, makingsure it has clear performance metrics that align with broader team and organizational objectives. Encourage leaders to co-create these performance metrics with their teams so accountability feels collaborative rather than imposed. Periodically revisit role descriptions to address overlaps or gaps, especially as the organization evolves. Research indicates that ambiguity in accountability is a leading cause of delays in organizational efficiency. Integrate Culture with Design: Ensure that processes and systems reflect the organizations core values. For instance, if collaboration is a priority, design team processes that reward joint problem-solving. Build performance reviews and reward systems that recognize behaviors aligned with cultural goals. Leaders should receive training on how to model these values in their daily interactions. Create feedback loops through surveys or focus groups to monitor cultural health and course-correct as needed. A well-integrated culture enhances employee engagement, driving measurable improvements in productivity. Cultivate Leadership: Provide leaders with development programs that address the unique challenges of their roles. Invest in coaching and mentoring initiatives to help leaders build emotional intelligence, resilience, and strategic thinking. Implement peer-learning groups where leaders can share insights and learn from each others experiences. Equip them with advanced tools for data-driven decision-making, and regularly assess their development progress through structured feedback mechanisms. A Symbiotic Relationship Leadership does not exist in a vacuum. It thrives or falters in direct proportion to the environment that is shaping it. Bad organizational design is not just a technical or financial issue; it is a moral and strategic one. Leaders who find themselves trapped in poorly designed systems must not merely cope but advocate for systemic change. After all, an organizations design is its ultimate act of self-expression. It is the pure embodiment of the organizations mission and strategyand it shapes the kind of leaders it will produce. When design and leadership are in harmony, the result is not only organizational success but leaders and employees who flourish.
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E-Commerce
Everyone knows pain. It’s the most common ailment people experience, from a headache to a stubbed toe to a sore back. Treating pain can be as straightforward as popping a pill. But for people experiencing chronic painlike the lingering aftereffects of chemotherapy or the slow rehabilitation after a major car accidentmedication is rarely enough to fully erase the pain. When the patient experiencing chronic pain is a child, the stakes can feel even higher. To help children experiencing chronic pain, a new kind of clinical space has been created that goes way beyond handing out medication. The Stad Center for Pediatric Pain, Palliative and Integrative Medicine is a holistic clinic that combines Western medicine, rehabilitation, psychological care, and less conventional forms of pain management, including hypnotherapy, acupuncture, and meditation. In its newest location, designed by the architecture firm NBBJ and opening next month in San Francisco, the architecture of the clinic plays a significant role in this multifaceted approach to treating pain. [Photo: NBBJ/courtesy UCSF] It was specifically designed in a way to start the healing before children even see the first doctor, says Dr. Stefan Friedrichsdorf, medical director of the Stad Center. The clinic features nature-inspired decor, alcoves, and furnishings. Two themes, underwater and redwood forest, appear throughout the clinic and are given playful, almost interactive elements to encourage engagement among younger patients. One wall in the lobby features a projected digital waterfall over a forest scene, and its flowing water responds to the movement and touch of children who come near it. Natural-looking materials, abundant daylight, and spacious common areas are intended to exude calm. We’re one of the very few places that really show that our goal is to help children and adolescents and young adults to get back to normal life and get rid of the pain, Friedrichsdorf says. [Photo: NBBJ/courtesy UCSF] Rethinking the waiting room Part of the University of California San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospitals system, the Stad Center is a five-year-old clinic that builds off Friedrichsdorf’s previous working building a similar pain center in Minneapolis. When the opportunity arose to build a brand new space at UCSF, Friedrichsdorf flew the NBBJ design team out to Minneapolis to see how this holistic approach to treating pain works. In addition to its inclusion of non-Western medical and healing modalities, Friedrichsdorf’s multidisciplinary approach avoids some of the spatial separations that can slow the delivery of care. [Photo: NBBJ/courtesy UCSF] The biggest difference between this new clinic and most health care spaces is that it does not have a formal waiting room. To reduce the anxiety that young patients can experience in hospital settings, the clinic was designed to make a smooth transition from the outside to a consultation area, exam room, or therapy space. The lobby is one point of a circular pathway that leads to sitting areas, treatment rooms, and rehabilitation spaces. There are almost no right angles, and the designers used natural curves to inform its layout. [Photo: NBBJ/courtesy UCSF] Another major focus of the design was creating a space where the center’s team of multidisciplinary practitioners can meet with new patients, all together, to understand the pain conditions and plan out a course of treatment. That intake can take a long time, because we really want to spend the time to understand what brought the child to the clinic and then really think about what we would recommend for them, says Dr. Karen Sun, a hospitalist at the Stad Center. Friedrichsdorf explains that chronic pain can often be hard to detect, which leads many doctors to either ignore it or over-medicate it. Kids have often heard well, we don’t see anything on the imagery, therefore the pain is not real, therefore you’re crazy or you’re making this up, he says. I always tell my kids your pain is real, you’re not craz, you’re not making this up. I see this all the time. Now, what do we need to do to make sure that this pain goes away? [Photo: NBBJ/courtesy UCSF] A new approach to chronic pain The intake meeting with the clinic’s various practitioners helps the team understand the pain and identify the best interventions, be they medical, rehabilitative, or less conventional forms of healing. It feels very cohesive. It feels very much like things flow. And they leave with a really strong sense of what’s going to happen, Sun says. There’s none of this, Oh, we’re going to refer you to physical therapy and then you have to wait for three months. [Photo: NBBJ/courtesy UCSF] That physical therapist is typically in the room for that intake meeting, and the physical therapy gym is right down the hall. Same with the acupuncture and acupressure studios, meditation spaces, and more conventional medical exam and treatment rooms. One feature patients have responded to well in early testing is the multisensory room, which features dimmable lights, speakers built into chairs, a hanging swing, a climbing wall, and other interactive elements meant to help calm children with particular sensitivities. This is something quite fabulous and originally meant for children who have impairment of the brain or other senses, Friedrichsdorf says. However, we found that otherwise healthy kids and teenagers really, really enjoy this room. Pulling all these treatment types into one center means that patients can easily access whatever will help address their specific type of pain. We have found if we combine the best Western medicine and medications, interventions, surgery, rehabilitation, and psychology with those integrative modalities, that kids heal much faster and get back to life earlier, Friedrichsdorf says.
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E-Commerce
In 1865, a new department store opened in Paris called Printemps (which is French for spring). The architecture is a stunning Art Deco masterpiece, replete with mosaics, dramatic turrets, and enormous windows with dramatic displays of recent products. Today, it sits among other iconic Parisian landmarks, like the Galleries Lafayette store and the Opera. But back then, there was nothing nearby except a railway line that only carried cargo. When we opened our store on Boulevard Haussmann, it was a completely new area, says Jean-Marc Bellaiche, CEO of Printemps Groupe, the store’s parent company. It was a bet that this neighborhood would become hot and vibrant. It was a very successful bet. [Photo: Gieves Anderson/Printemps New York] This week, Printemps is making a bet on another neighborhood in another continent: New York’s Financial District. Over the past few years, the area has gone through a massive revitalization, as apartments, restaurants, and shops have moved in. Printemps is moving into the ground floor of a 50-story residential building at One Wall Street. Fifteen years ago, it would have been risky to move here, but it’s transforming in a big way, he says. Bellaiche says Printemps spent a lot of time thinking about the new dynamics in the Financial District. He points out that the area was once dominated by bankers, but there are many other businesses in the area now, including media, fashion, and technology. The Spotify headquarters are nearby, he says. He also finds it appealing that there are many new apartment complexes in the area, and families are moving in. It makes the area feel much more like a real neighborhood, one that we are now a part of, he says. [Photo: Gieves Anderson/Printemps New York] Printemps’s flagship store in Paris is a gargantuan 450,000 square foot operation that is spread out across three buildings, and features more than 1,500 brands. Bellaiche, who joined the company in 2020, has been instrumental in helping to think about Printemps’s future. Part of this has involved expanding beyond France to other markets. Printemps opened a Doha, Qatar, in 2022, and this New York store continues this investment in foreign markets. The New York store is about a tenth the size, and the company wanted to design a store that was somewhat cozier. It has a far smaller, more curated assortment of brands and products that are generally high-end, but that span a range of price points. While you can buy Louboutins in the shoe section, Nike Women is also doing a pop-up, offering affordably priced sneakers. We thought, what if Printemps had a pied-a-terre in New York, says Laura Lendrum, CEO of Printemps America. So we kind of took that idea literally, and designed the store around the concept of an apartment. [Photo: Gieves Anderson/Printemps New York] The company brought on Laura Gonzalez, a French interior designer, to help design the space. She worked with the Printemps team to create various rooms, much like you would have in a home, where you would want to spend time. The Red Room, which is a historic space in the One Wall Street building, has been transformed into a walk-in closet for shoes. Beauty products are displayed in a cozy bathroom inspired space with green tiled walls. There’s a cafe and a restaurant inspired by a breakfast nook and a dining room. There are plenty of plush sofas for you to sit on. [Photo: Gieves Anderson/Printemps New York] Designed for discovery Lendruma retail veteran who previously worked for Ralph Lauren, Gucci, and Saint Laurentsays the idea of creating a homey feel was very deliberate. For years, brick and mortar was in decline, even in the realm of high-end department stores. (Barney’s shuttered in 2020, after 97 years in business.) In the post-pandemic world, consumers’ appetites for retail has returned, but Lendrum says they don’t want to feel like the shopping experience is purely transactional. One way they signal this is by letting the customer choose how they want to spend their time in the store, rather than directing them towards particular sections to make purchases. In the IKEA model, the store directs you to go from point A to point B to maximize how much you will buy, says Lendrum. But here, our designer has made sure there is not a single path through the store. It isall about the poetry of shapes and curves; there are no straight lines. Everything is designed to encourage discovery and wandering. [Photo: Gieves Anderson/Printemps New York] Lendrum says that the team focused on creating lots of flexible areas which can be transformed from season to season, to keep things interesting for guests. This proved to be a challenge. In retail, architects don’t like creating flexibility spaces because the lighting and fixtures need to be adapted to the merchandise, Lendrum says. But Laura [Gonzalez] was willing to make it work. This means we can convert areas into brand pop-ups, cooking classes, book readingswhatever is interesting for the community. [Photo: Gieves Anderson/Printemps New York] Bellaiche says that the restaurants were another way of making the space less transactional, and more focused on hospitality. Printemps’s Paris flagship has more than 15 dining options, including La Perruche, a rooftop restaurant that has 1,000 seats, 400 of which offer a view of the Eiffel Tower and the Opera. Bellaiche wanted the New York store to be equally known for its dining. Printemps managed to bring on Gregory Gourdet, a James Beard award winning chef who opened the Haitian restaurant Kann in Portland, to develop a range of dining options, which will include fine dining and a café. As the Financial District keeps booming, and more families move into nearby apartments, Bellaiche hopes people will think of Printemps less as a place to shop for clothes or makeup and more as a regular destination as they go about life. We hope people will come in for their daily coffee and croissant, he says. We love seeing people come into the store every day. It allows us to develop an intimacy with them.
Category:
E-Commerce
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