See The Board Before You Move

In The Queen’s Gambit, Beth Harmon does not succeed because she reacts faster than everyone else. She succeeds because she sees the board clearly, understands trade-offs, and commits to a small number of deliberate moves with confidence, even when the path forward is not obvious. That mindset is exactly what today’s marketing leaders need.

Most leaders are not struggling because they lack effort, intelligence, or ambition. They are struggling because they have inherited organizations that no longer reflect how work gets done or what the business needs next. Over time, roles blur, capabilities sprawl, decisions slow, and confidence erodes.

Deliberately Design The Operating Model Your Organization Needs

In our B2B Summit workshop, “Confident Power Moves: Design Through Reorgs, Layoffs, And Change,” we will help marketing leaders deliberately design the organizational operating model their strategy requires. We do not start with org charts. We start by clarifying the work that matters, the capabilities required to deliver it, and the decisions that create impact. A reorg may be one outcome of that work, but it is never the starting point.

When leaders step back and examine how work flows across their teams, patterns surface quickly. Critical roles are overloaded. Accountability is unclear. Capabilities that once mattered now create friction, while others are missing entirely. These moments are not signs of failure; they are signals that the organization needs attention.

AI Raises The Stakes; Intentionality Still Wins

The most effective leaders do not respond with sweeping structural change. They make a small number of intentional power moves, grounded in evidence, that realign their teams around what matters most. They define trade-offs and stop protecting work that no longer fits. And they use role clarity, workload assessment, and gap analysis not as documentation exercises, but as tools for building confidence.

That confidence matters even more as AI accelerates organizational pressure. AI does not fix operating model problems; it exposes them. Leaders who have not clarified roles, capabilities, and decision rights feel that pressure immediately. Leaders who have done the groundwork are far better positioned to adapt.

The point is not to predict every change or design a perfect future-state organization. It’s to give leaders the clarity and confidence to explain why certain changes matter, what must shift, and where focus should go next. That may lead to role evolution, capability investment, stopping work that no longer delivers value, or, in some cases, a reorg.

The Payoff Of Org Design And Development

  • Confidence comes from clarity, not certainty. Leaders build confidence by making priorities explicit and standing behind the trade-offs they choose.
  • Operating models should be designed around work, capabilities, and decisions, not org charts. Real alignment starts with how value is created, not how boxes are drawn.
  • Intentional moves create more impact than reactive structural change. Progress accelerates when leaders commit to fewer decisions that matter.
  • Tools and templates build confidence when they surface priorities and trade-offs. Structure strengthens leadership when it sharpens judgment and decision-making.
  • AI raises the stakes, but it does not replace deliberate operating model design. The faster the technology moves, the more clarity leaders need in roles, capabilities, and focus.

Join Us At B2B Summit North America

If this resonates, join me and Vicki Brown at Forrester’s B2B Summit North America for our workshop, “Confident Power Moves: Design Through Reorgs, Layoffs, And Change,” where we will work through practical tools and templates to help you design the organizational operating model your strategy needs.