Mastering the Cube: Overcoming Stumbling Blocks and Building an Organization that Works

Mastering the Cube skillfully lays out proven organization design principles. Comparing today’s complex organizations to a Rubik’s Cube, the authors explain how focusing improvement efforts on just one or two facets of the organization is akin to concentrating on just one side of the cube. Doing so is bound to affect—and more likely jumble—the other areas needed to generate a healthy and sustainable organization. They advocate stepping back and taking a systems-wide, comprehensive view of change and bringing all elements into alignment with strategy. They describe eight common beliefs and missteps that cause leaders to stumble, and they offer eight building blocks to effectively orchestrate complex organizational change.

Written for both business leaders and their change partners in human resources, organization effectiveness, organization design, strategy, information technology, and process or continuous improvement (e.g., Lean Six Sigma), the book offers practical wisdom to help readers develop a shared perspective on organization design and achieve positive business results. It also outlines key principles and concepts for leading effective organization alignment—and moving your organization into a productive, rewarding future.

Whether the transformation before you involves restructuring, consolidations, or mergers and acquisitions, this resource provides the guidance you’ll need to become skilled in the important, real work of strategic organizational alignment.



This is a great step-by-step how-to manual on defining and changing the design of your company. If you're facing such challenges and have only time to read one thing, read this. It is omniscient, efficient and sufficient.--Clayton Christensen, Professor, Harvard Business School

A must read for C-Suite execs interested in cutting the fat and preserving the muscle. Mastering the Cube: Overcoming Stumbling Blocks and Building an Organization that Works is a blueprint for smart, engaging cost reduction and efficiency no matter the circumstances.--Joe Nothwang, President, Rentals and Leasing, the Americas and Asia, Hertz Corporation

The 8 stumbling blocks are an excellent reminder of the all-too-often misguided approach and beliefs at play within businesses tackling organization transformation and change. Mastering the Cube offers thoughtful and practical wisdom and techniques for any leader who seeks to ensure that the organization design efforts they undertake are aligned with strategy and result in sustainable business impact.--Angela S. Lalor, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Danaher

This book doesn't sugar coat the tough choices with which organization leaders are confronted For those who have the courage to move forward, Mastering the Cube is a practical and valuable guide to aligning organization "choices" to strategy. I found the guidance equally applicable to all types of organizations: for-profit, government, and non-profit.--Ann R. Henry, Vice President, Global Operations, Cisco Capital

Mastering the Cube is a guide organization architects can use to maneuver through the critical steps to produce an organization that works. Nicely done. --Larry Costello, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resource Officer, Tyco International

AlignOrg Solutions is an international consultancy serving enterprises of all sizes and types to clarify strategy, align organizational choices, build organization capabilities, manage and implement change, and develop alignment leadership. The firm offers a high-engagement approach, exceptional alignment tools, and hard-won expertise in leading organization transformation projects. They are respected worldwide for helping leaders and their change partners align the choices in their organizations with a differentiated strategy for future success.

Reed Deshler is a principal with AlignOrg Solutions and a leading organization design and change practice leader with extensive corporate and consulting experience. He has worked with leaders at some of the largest and most respected companies in the world. Leaders appreciate Reed's expertise in the science of organization design and change coupled with how he artfully diagnoses organization misalignments and facilitates the insights needed to drive business change and growth. Reed is a regular presenter at industry conferences and is a noted educator of organization design and change management skills with business executives around the world.

Kreig Smith is the founder of AlignOrg Solutions and a principal with the firm. He has consulted with a wide range of organizations-from Fortune 50 corporations to small businesses, for profit and nonprofit organizations, and domestic and international enterprises-for nearly thirty years. His expertise centers in the alignment of organizations to marketplace positions. Kreig focuses on large-scale change efforts, strategy clarification, organization design, and education. A presenter at many national and international conferences on organization design and change, Kreig is also a certified GE Crotonville instructor.

Alyson Von Feldt guides major organization design initiatives with AlignOrg Solutions at enterprises ranging from startups to Fortune 50 companies. With a background in both the profit and nonprofit sectors, Alyson has led business unit design teams charged with aligning structures, workflows, and systems to strategy. As a writer, she develops robust tools and training programs that showcase and simplify powerful design techniques, and she documents the stories of intriguing high-performing organizations. Alyson is an author of Running into the Wind: 5 Strategies for Building a Successful Team.