Your Operating Model Is Your Strategy in Practice

An organisation may describe its strategy in bold terms: grow into new markets, improve service, innovate or build new capabilities. Its operating model shows whether it is set up to do those things.

The operating model is the way work gets done. It includes how teams are organised, how decisions are made, how processes connect, and how performance is monitored. It turns strategic choices into everyday conditions for action.

Look at the work, not only the chart

Organisation charts show formal reporting lines, but they rarely show where work stalls. To understand the operating model, follow a real piece of work from beginning to end.

Notice where decisions wait, where information gets lost, where teams duplicate effort and where accountability becomes unclear. These points often reveal a mismatch between the strategy and the way the organisation runs.

Align the elements that shape execution

Roles and decision rights: People need to understand who owns the work and which decisions they can make.

Processes and handoffs: Work should move between teams with clear inputs, outputs and responsibilities.

Information and measures: Leaders need timely information about progress, quality and obstacles, not just activity.

Capabilities and capacity: Teams need the skills and time required to deliver the work expected of them.

Improve what gets in the way

Operating model work does not always require a large redesign. Sometimes the right change is a clearer decision rule, a simpler approval path or a more useful review routine. In other cases, roles, processes or structures need deeper attention.

The aim is to make the organisation’s priorities easier to act on. Start with the work that matters most, understand what is blocking it, and adjust the system around that work. Then check whether the change helps people deliver more clearly and consistently.

When the operating model supports the strategy, execution becomes less dependent on individual heroics and more grounded in the way the organisation works every day.