Learnings, the hard way
1/ Top management commitment: The vision of the changed organization should be developed at the top. For an objective and outside view, consultants / mentors might be employed as well. These third parties could also be used to facilitate discussion and ideation.
2/ Communicate, communicate, communicate: The top management should communicate the new vision, plan, and events to all in the organization since employees tend to be insecure during the usually turbulent period of restructuring. They could have open houses to allay fears and concerns and obtain feedback and suggestions.
3/ Inter-departmental coordination: All affected (and non-affected) departments should not only be kept in the loop, but also involved in the decision-making process. This will help minimize any roadblocks that might arise at the time of implementation due to lack of inter-departmental participation.
4/ Meticulous planning: It will do organizations good to thoroughly think through ideas in terms of execution hassles, effort, time, and money as also risks involved. A great idea without a detailed, executable plan and the right resources is useless.
5/ Estimate impact and then measure it: Many ideas might come up at the time of brainstorming. It is important that these ideas be considered through several lenses - immediacy of impact, magnitude of impact, alignment with vision/strategy, and practicality just to name a few. Pilot some of these ideas and then measure their impact rigorously before full-blown execution.
I am glad I am learning some of these things the hard way :)
