In adaptive organization design, the broader destination is often clear. Our clients typically set out to build flatter structures, foster stronger collaboration, and create the conditions for adaptability and engagement. Yet while the goals may be well defined, the path to reaching them rarely unfolds in a straight line. The development pace of people, processes, and workflows differs widely, and the granular end state is never fully visible at the beginning. What unfolds instead is a journey where even the underlying processes, skill sets, and workflows continue to emerge throughout the transformation. Along the way, unexpected challenges surface. Departments progress at uneven speeds, leaders lag behind teams, and skepticism from employees lingers longer than anticipated. For clients and stakeholders alike, it is crucial to recognize that these challenges are not flaws in the process. They are inherent to collaborative approaches that embrace co-creation and shared ownership. In other words, they are part of the process—and without working through them, meaningful change cannot occur. In this article, we explore the most common forms of uneven progress and what it takes to navigate them effectively.

Uneven Departmental Progress

Imagine the following: Your collaborative initiative to innovate your organization design toward greater adaptability and collaboration is well underway. Everyone is engaged and supportive of the changes ahead. However, as the process unfolds, it becomes noticeable that some departments are lagging behind while others are much further ahead in their transformation journey.

This unevenness is almost inevitable. Departments differ in their histories, cultures, and operational realities. Some embrace new ways of working with energy and curiosity, while others remain cautious, holding on to familiar structures and routines. The result is an uneven pace of change across the organization.

This can create friction when more advanced, highly collaborative groups need to coordinate with those that are slower to adapt. The collaborative groups may feel frustrated or even slowed down, while the more hesitant departments can feel pressured or left behind. In practice, this tension sometimes requires building what might be called “micro-processes”—dedicated interventions or mini design sprints that help slower groups progress without forcing early adopters to pause their momentum.

Managing uneven departmental progress requires nuance. A uniform, one-size-fits-all rollout rarely works. Instead, leaders and designers often need to adjust the pace—staggering timelines, tailoring facilitation, or offering targeted support to ensure each group moves forward at a rhythm that respects their starting point. The key is to balance patience with progress, creating space for convergence over time rather than expecting lockstep change from the outset.

The Leadership Lag

Another common challenge emerges when teams and employees begin to embrace flatter structures, only to discover that leadership has not yet fully adapted. Leaders are typically briefed early in the process, and most voice their support during the initial “buy-in” phase. Yet as soon as collaborative practices take hold on the ground, the gap between conceptual agreement and lived reality often becomes clear.

That is the point at which leaders struggle to calibrate their role. Too much control stifles the very empowerment the new design seeks to create. Too little involvement leaves teams directionless and craving clarity. The tightrope between guidance and autonomy is difficult to walk, particularly for leaders accustomed to more traditional hierarchies or organizational settings. While some of this can be anticipated and mitigated through dedicated work with leaders, the transition rarely goes as smoothly as hoped.

The risks are real. If leaders lag behind, credibility erodes. Employees notice when leaders fail to embody the very changes they have been advocating. Bottlenecks form, or worse, the shift toward collaboration loses momentum. To mitigate this, leadership development must be explicitly woven into the design process. Reflection loops, structured feedback sessions, and co-design opportunities can help leaders grow alongside their teams rather than behind them.

Yet leadership development alone is not enough. Teams and departments also need to understand that they may, at times, be further ahead in the journey than their leaders. When that happens, they must learn to give leaders the space to develop into their evolving roles. This is where a genuine learning experience begins: Everyone, at every level, must be a leader by helping one another hold the space for growth and collaboration to occur.

At the same time, organization designers, coaches, and transformation specialists play a critical role in continuously supporting both leaders and teams. Through guided practice of new collaboration forms, workflows, and team processes, they help shape the emerging cultural and behavioral norms that allow the shift to take hold. This is where the abstract idea of leadership and collaboration transformation can become a lived reality.

The Skepticism Barrier

Even when change is visibly underway, skepticism remains one of the hardest barriers to overcome. In almost every project, the same refrain is heard: “We’ve tried this before—it didn’t work.” Employees carry the weight of past initiatives that may have promised more than they delivered, leaving a residue of doubt.

This disbelief can be particularly strong in the early and middle stages of transformation, when progress is incremental and fragile. While designers and leaders can already see the new structures, workflows, and collaboration patterns emerging, employees anchored in the “yesterday” of the organization often cannot. They may struggle to believe that deep-rooted dynamics will ever change, even when small shifts are already taking place.

Addressing this skepticism requires more than reassurance. It calls for tangible proof points and continuous communication. Highlighting early wins, sharing stories of progress, and linking visible changes to the broader vision all help employees recognize that the transformation is real. Most importantly, employees need to see that the current initiative is not a repeat of past failures but a fundamentally different process—one that involves them directly in shaping desired outcomes themselves.

Holding the Bigger Picture

Perhaps the greatest challenge for organization designers is balancing two temporal realities: The future they can already envision and the present in which employees remain embedded. From their vantage point, it is often possible to see the final version of the design beginning to unfold. They can picture how leadership, collaboration, workflows, and structures will ultimately align. Yet the people living through the change are still experiencing today’s frustrations, uncertainties, and disbelief.

This creates a paradox. Designers must honor the lived reality of the present while also shepherding people toward a future they cannot yet imagine. Holding that bigger picture is a responsibility that requires both patience and persistence. It is about seeing potential long before others do and creating the conditions for people to grow into that vision at their own pace.

Navigating this paradox demands an iterative mindset. Transformation is never about forcing people into a pre-determined structure, but about enabling them to co-create a design they can own and succeed in. That means continuously fine-tuning, adjusting, and recalibrating along the way—always with the bigger picture in mind but never detached from the daily realities on the ground.

From Unevenness to Ownership

Adaptive organization design is not a straight path. It is an unfolding journey marked by uneven departmental progress, leadership lag, and employee skepticism. Far from being signs of failure, these dynamics are evidence of a living, collaborative process that cannot be fully scripted in advance.

The art lies in embracing this unevenness. By tailoring support to departments, creating reflection loops for leaders and teams, addressing skepticism with tangible proof, and holding the bigger picture while honoring the present, organizations can sustain momentum even in the face of a complex transformation. 

When organizations lean into this reality, uneven progress becomes more than a challenge—it becomes part of the path to a new, authentic, and adaptive organization design. The most successful designs are not only structurally sound but also deeply embedded in the organization’s culture. That step will have to be earned and developed. It is the result of a collective journey in which everyone—leaders, teams, and employees alike—has learned to see beyond yesterday and step into a future that, for a long time, only the designers could envision.

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