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Organizational Systems Design
Organizational systems design looks at workplace conflict at its source, examining and reshaping the systems, communication, and culture that influence how people work together, particularly when the same patterns of tension keep showing up across teams or departments.
At Pollack Peacebuilding Systems, our Peacebuilders look at how your organization functions in practice and help identify the patterns that may be contributing to recurring friction. Using transformative, interest-based methods grounded in the psychology of conflict, we look beneath the surface at the needs, interests, and perspectives involved, not just the individual issues showing up across teams and departments.
The goal is an organization that better supports the people within it, where responsibilities are clearer, communication works more effectively, and people have better ways to raise concerns, make decisions, and work through conflict together.
Trusted by Leading Organizations
PPS is the largest workplace conflict resolution firm in the U.S., with a nationwide team of Peacebuilders supporting organizations across more than 60 industries. We work with organizations of different sizes and structures, helping them address conflict and the organizational patterns that can contribute to it.
Video: About Pollack Peacebuilding Systems | Services, Clients & Impact, a short overview of our services, clients, and approach to helping people and organizations navigate workplace conflict.
What Is Organizational Systems Design (OSD)?
Organizational systems design is the process of examining and reshaping how the interconnected parts of an organization work together. It treats an organization not as a collection of separate teams and functions, but as a living system where changes in one area can affect people and work elsewhere.
Think of your organization as a body. Departments and teams are the organs, each with its own role. The systems that connect them (communication, feedback, decision-making, and the flow of information and resources) help those different parts work together.
When one of those systems breaks down, the effects can show up somewhere else entirely: confusion between teams, competing expectations, unclear decisions, or recurring conflict. What looks like a problem between individuals or departments may actually be connected to how information flows, responsibilities are defined, decisions are made, or concerns are addressed across the organization. Organizational systems design helps you see those connections, understand what may be contributing to the friction, and identify changes that better support both your people and the organization as a whole.
Why View Your Organization as a System
When conflict keeps returning, it can be tempting to focus on the people involved. But sometimes people are doing their best within systems that make working together harder than it needs to be. Unclear responsibilities, gaps in communication, competing priorities, or a lack of clear ways to address concerns can all contribute to recurring friction, especially as organizations grow and change.
Viewing your organization as a system helps you look beyond individual conflicts and understand what may be contributing to them. Our Peacebuilders explore questions such as:
- Roles and responsibilities: Do people understand what they’re responsible for, who makes which decisions, and where responsibilities may overlap?
- Communication and feedback: Does important information reach the people who need it, and do people have meaningful ways to raise concerns and share feedback?
- Conflict management: When disagreements arise, do people know how concerns can be addressed and where to turn for support?
- Needs and interests: What do individuals and teams need to do their work effectively, and where might important needs or interests be competing or going unaddressed?
Looking at these areas together can reveal connections between problems that may initially seem unrelated. Instead of focusing on who is at fault, organizational systems design helps identify where changes to the system could better support how people communicate, make decisions, and work together.
How Our Organizational Systems Design Process Works
We start by understanding what’s happening across your organization before recommending what should change. Our five-step organizational systems design process moves from assessment and stakeholder conversations to analysis, practical recommendations, and support putting those changes into practice.
As with our other PPS services, we begin with a free Discovery call. From there, your Program Director develops a customized proposal outlining the recommended scope and approach. Once the plan is approved, your team of Peacebuilders begins the five-step process: assessing your current systems, meeting with stakeholders, analyzing what we learn, developing recommendations, and helping put those recommendations into practice.
1. Assess Your Current Systems
We begin by looking at how work currently moves through your organization, including roles, communication, decision-making, feedback, and the ways conflict is addressed. This helps us understand where systems are supporting people and where they may be contributing to friction.
2. Meet With Your Stakeholders
We speak with people across the organization to understand how those systems are experienced in practice. These conversations help us hear different perspectives, needs, and concerns, including issues that may not be immediately visible from one part of the organization.
3. Review Your Analysis Report
We bring what we’ve learned together in a clear analysis report that identifies patterns, points of friction, and connections between issues that may have appeared separate. We review those findings with you so you understand what we’re seeing and what may be contributing to recurring friction.
4. Consider Your Recommendations
Based on the analysis, we provide targeted recommendations for changes that could better support how people communicate, make decisions, manage conflict, and work together. The recommendations reflect what we’ve learned about your organization, its people, and the challenges you’re trying to address.
5. Implement Your Systems Design
We help you put the recommended changes into practice and integrate them into the way your organization operates. Our Peacebuilders and coaches support your teams through the transition, helping people understand what is changing, why it matters, and how it affects the way they communicate, make decisions, and work together.
What Organizational Systems Design Helps Your Team Do
Well-designed systems give people clearer ways to understand what’s expected of them, communicate across teams, and address concerns when they arise. Organizational systems design doesn’t promise a conflict-free workplace. It helps create clearer structures and processes so people are better supported in working through the challenges that naturally come with working together.
- Communicate across departments: Improve how important information is shared so people can coordinate more effectively across teams.
- Work with clearer roles: Give people a better understanding of their responsibilities, where decisions are made, and how their work connects with others.
- Navigate disagreements: Create clearer ways for people to raise concerns, address conflict, and know where to turn when additional support is needed.
- Stay focused on the work: Address sources of confusion and friction that can consume people’s time and attention, helping them keep more of their energy focused on the work that matters.
Why Organizations Choose PPS
Organizational systems design isn’t only about structures and processes. It’s also about the people working within them. PPS brings our expertise in the psychology of conflict to systems design, helping organizations understand how communication, relationships, needs, and interests interact with the way work is structured.
Founded by Dr. Jeremy Pollack, PPS is the largest workplace conflict resolution firm in the U.S., with a nationwide team of Peacebuilders experienced in working with organizations across different industries and organizational structures. We take a transformative, interest-based approach, looking beyond the issues that are most visible to understand what may be contributing to recurring friction and how the organization itself can better support the people within it.
That combination of systems thinking and conflict psychology allows us to address organizational challenges without losing sight of the people working within the system.
Frequently Asked Questions About Organizational Systems Design
Organizational systems design is the process of examining and reshaping how the interconnected parts of an organization work together. It looks at areas such as roles, communication, feedback, decision-making, and conflict management to understand how those systems affect people and the way work gets done, with the goal of creating an organization that better supports both.
An org chart shows reporting lines, while systems design examines how communication, feedback, decision-making, needs, and working relationships function within that structure and shape everyday collaboration and conflict.
Four core systems shape how an organization functions: roles and responsibilities, communication and feedback, conflict management, and the needs and interests of the people within the organization. Organizational systems design looks at how these systems interact, where they may be creating friction, and what changes could better support both your people and the organization as a whole.
Recurring conflict often points to more than one isolated issue. Organizational systems design helps identify patterns in communication, roles, decision-making, and unmet needs that may be contributing to friction. Addressing those patterns can help create clearer ways for people to communicate, raise concerns, and work through conflict together.
Our five-step organizational systems design process includes assessing your current systems, meeting with stakeholders, reviewing an analysis report, developing targeted recommendations, and helping put those recommendations into practice. We begin with a free Discovery call, followed by a customized proposal that outlines the recommended scope and approach.
A company should consider organizational systems design when conflict or communication problems keep returning despite efforts to address them individually. Recurring tension, unclear responsibilities, communication breakdowns, or confusion around decision-making can point to broader organizational patterns that need attention.
Organizational systems design consulting at PPS is provided by our nationwide team of Peacebuilders. Founded by Dr. Jeremy Pollack, PPS brings a transformative, interest-based approach and expertise in the psychology of conflict to help organizations understand the patterns affecting how their people work together.
Other Services
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Ready to Redesign Your Organizational Systems
When the same patterns of conflict or communication breakdown keep showing up across your organization, the problem may extend beyond any one person, team, or disagreement. PPS can help you examine the systems behind those patterns, understand what may be contributing to the friction, and identify practical changes that better support your people and the way they work together.
We begin with a conversation to understand what’s happening across your organization, what needs to change, and how PPS can help you move forward.
