Mastering Complexity

2

Why a Structural Model?

How can we know that a proposed organizational change will be an organizational improvement?

•  By looking at the organization’s logical structure.

Using a DSM spreadsheet, we can make this structure visible and its key logical elements self-evident. A DSM spreadsheet helps us articulate, verify, and reorganize structures.

•  We use the general term element to denote a row (and its column) in a DSM spreadsheet.

In a DSM spreadsheet, each element will be represented twice—once as a row and again as a column. Elements are listed down the left-hand side of the DSM spreadsheet. The same list of elements is placed along the top of the DSM spreadsheet, from left to right. Their row order and their column order are ...