'Listen, I would love the reorg to work. But I just can't trust them' -

I had called Mary as part of my preparation for an offsite with the leaders of a fast-growing financial services firm. Mary was talking about the newly reorganized HR department.

Before, when she could trust them, Mary had a dedicated HR person — Lucinda — to address her needs. But now? Now she had to call a shared services group who were, collectively, responsible for following through on her requests.

"Why can't you trust them?" I asked.

Mary had a hard time answering. It wasn't that they had failed to deliver — but she was pretty sure they would. With so many different people involved, how could things not fall through the cracks?

"The more people juggling," Mary told me, "the higher the risk of someone, somewhere, dropping a ball."

Follow the link below to read the entire article:

http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2011/01/the-secret-to-ensuring-follow-.html

Peter Bregman speaks, writes, and consults on leadership. He is the CEO of Bregman Partners, Inc., a global management consulting firm, and the author of Point B: A Short Guide To Leading a Big Change.