Only 23% of reorganizations achieve their objectives. The other 77% just reset the clock.
Most reorgs are sold as cost savings. What gets forgotten: the cost of disturbance.
Each reorg costs 20-30% productivity during implementation - declines that extend beyond initial projections. Tacit knowledge embedded in relationships dissipates. Teams rebuild working relationships from scratch. That takes months.
Research shows cost-driven restructuring leads to low morale, decreased productivity, disengaged team members. The savings on paper get eaten by the disruption in practice.
This is the trap most data teams fall into.
You restructure to cut costs. Results don’t come fast enough. You restructure again. Repeat. A company that reorganizes every 18 months never knows whether poor results stem from strategy, execution, or insufficient time.
The irony: you can’t tell if the last structure failed or just never had time to work.
When you’re always reorganizing, you’re never executing. You’re never learning what actually works. You’re resetting the experiment before the results come in.
Most reorgs aim to save money. Most actually burn it - in productivity loss, knowledge destruction, and trust erosion that takes years to rebuild.
What knowledge was lost in your last restructuring that you’re still rebuilding?