Rule #1: Figure Out Your Role

When you first get wind of the reorg, you have a choice. How are you going to participate? Are you going to sit back and watch the fun or are you going to actively dive into the chaos?

You’ll likely need to assess the magnitude of the reorg before you choose. You’re especially interested in whatever machinations are in play for your part of the building, but the key to remember is that reorgs represent opportunity. Even if this particular reorg doesn’t involve your team, it doesn’t mean that you can’t pitch your boss on fixing a long-standing organization problem in your group.

The opportunity lies in the fact that a reorg makes an organization very limber. Managers across the organization are thinking the same thing as you: “Well, if we’re going to solve problem A right now, we should take a stab at problem B since we’re going to be mucking with everything anyway.” If you’ve got an agenda, if you’ve got a change in mind, it’s time to consider pushing it because the chances that you can effect change are vastly higher in the midst of a reorg.

If you’re content sitting back and watching everyone else pull the strings, there are still some other things to pay attention to.

Rule #2: People Are Paranoid

There is a painfully long period between when a majority of the organization knows about a reorg and when the actual reorg occurs. It’s a painful time because it causes employees to start asking basic questions regarding the company. Who is going where and why? Are there layoffs? Why is this happening and do I have a job when it’s all over?

The day before the team learned about the reorg, none of these questions were being asked. The team was working in a state of pleasant ignorance where their biggest worry was the next deadline. Now, they’re worrying about what the organization is going to look like tomorrow and the simple fact is, no one knows.

Let’s go back to what your boss told you: “I held off from telling you because things are changing so much and I didn’t want to jerk you around. It’s all settled down now.”

Read that again. “Things are changing so much” and “It’s all settled down now.” He’s contradicted himself and you hear this when he says it. Yes, he’s trying to communicate, but all he’s doing is making you paranoid. You’re going to walk out of that meeting thinking, “He doesn’t actually know what’s going to happen,” and you’re right. He doesn’t.

The fact that no one actually knows what is going to happen tomorrow creates a culture of paranoia and that means you need to start listening carefully.

Rule #3: The Grapevine Gone Mad

A major contributor to the rumor chaos around reorgs is the grapevine. Simply put, information that starts out as fact will slowly become more and more rumor as it moves from person to person. Let’s watch . . .

VP of engineering to her staff: “They’re building a new hardware group under Ted. It’s not clear where they’ll be getting all the headcount, but one option would be to sacrifice headcount from other groups.”

What’d she say? Pretty clear statement of fact. She’s trying to give her staff a heads up. Let’s keep moving.

Manager of engineering to his staff: “Ted has a new group. We’re liable to lose headcount in our group.”

OK, what’d he say? He starts with the facts and then follows up with an opinion—he’s losing heads. Why is he saying this? Maybe he’s been at the company for years and knows how these things play out or maybe he’s just guessing. Who knows? The grapevine is officially in effect. Watch . . .

Senior engineer to his friend: “We’re losing heads in our group and they’re going to Ted’s group. Gosh, I hate Ted.”

Welcome to a fully developed rumor ready for consumption by the grapevine.

This is a simple example, but it illustrates basic human nature. We want to know what’s going on, and when we don’t, we’re likely to make stuff up using whatever facts are available to give the impression that we do. When you add opinions and biases to this information-creation process, you end up with a steady flow of compelling fiction crossing your desk.

Outside of the reorg, I put a lot of faith in the grapevine because I find there is less mutation of information as it jumps from person to person, but when jobs are on the line, the grapevine goes insane and some radical crap is going to find its way to you. I advise a patient, journalistic policy, where you confirm tidbits of information with independent sources before you believe anything.

Rule #4: Reorgs Take Forever

The time from when you hear about a reorg to when it’s actually done is going to be four times as long as you think. Reorgs take forever. Plans are designed, confirmed with stakeholders, adjusted with feedback, balanced with budgets, run up the flagpole with the big boss, and then taken back to the drawing board. While this official process is going down, there are hallway shenanigans going on, as well as individual political players jockeying for headcount by tweaking the grapevine for their own nefarious purposes. All of this results in more information being inserted into the official process, forcing even more iteration.

My advice here is based on the role that you chose. Clearly if you’ve got skin in the game and have an agenda to push, you need to stay engaged for the duration. Don’t trust when your boss tells you, “We’re done,” because that means he thinks he’s done. He doesn’t know about Phil over in platform engineering who still has a couple of moves in him.

If you’ve chosen the observation role, I recommend sitting back in your chair and enjoying the scurrying. Take comfort in the fact that you’re still employed, and hey, if the reorg affects you, maybe a change of scenery is going to do you some good. Don’t forget to ask for a window in your new office.

A reorg isn’t over until someone important has printed out a new organizational chart and presented it in front of the entire company.

Rule #5: Most Folks Love Reorgs (But Hate to Admit It)

Reorganizations represent opportunity to those who are unhappy with the state of the current organization. As mentioned above, the moment stakeholders hear that there is a reorg brewing, they start working the grapevine to steer the course of the reorg in their favor. When you combine this fact with people’s love of gossip, you’re guaranteed a big, juicy, drawn-out reorganization.

If you’re an observer, you might be annoyed by all the hallway conversation and closed-door meetings, but the fact is, most folks love this shit. Who is getting moved? Really? Wow. No way. He’s an idiot! That blows! For some reason, conversations about reorgs sound a lot like conversations about infidelity. People are incapable of shutting up.

The group responsible for generating the most noise around reorgs, ironically, is the group who has the least effect on their eventual outcomes. These are the folks who are lingering in the dark while the management team wades through strategy, political agenda, and fiscal responsibility looking for a plan that gets the company out of wondering who works for whom and starts worrying about building product again.

The Only Rule: Patience

Think of the last contentious decision your team had to make. I’m talking about a big decision where team members were on opposite sides of the fence and you had to spend a good portion of a week sifting through the facts and opinions in order to construct a compromise decision that everyone agreed to, but didn’t like.

Now, let’s include the entire company in that decision. It doesn’t matter what that decision is, what matters is that large groups of people move incredibly slowly. Call it bureaucracy, call it group think, but understand that very large groups of people working together barely looks like working because they move so slowly

Reorgs affect the entire company. Everyone has an opinion and that means group think of a magnitude you’re unfamiliar with. I know you’re worried about your job, your team, and your career, but take a breath—I’m sure there’s other work to do.