Like the air we breathe, organizations are everywhere — and something we rarely consider. But maybe we should. All our day-to-day interactions occur within organizations — students tackling a group assignment, marketing professionals building a client proposal, neighbours launching a community initiative. And of course, we find ourselves in larger ones too — government offices, university faculties, corporations, cities.

But how often do we stop and ask: what is an organization?

Organizations are defined as a collection of individuals who interact and coordinate actions to achieve some sort of organizational objective. Simply put, all organizations have people, a structure of some kind, and — though not always stated — an objective.

As an organization design guy, it’s the second element — structure — that I find particularly interesting. Structure speaks to the ‘interact and coordinate actions’ part of the definition. It helps us understand how the organization functions or how the people connect with each other. By definition, all organizations MUST have structure. Without structure there is chaos.

So what is organizational structure? And how is it achieved?

Think of structure like a coin where one side is responsibility and the other is accountability. Just as a coin always has two sides, for an organization to exist both responsibility and accountability must be present. Too often, especially in bureaucratic systems, we assume people can be aligned through strong leadership alone. But leadership isn’t structure — and it isn’t a substitute for clarity.

Responsibility is about clarity. Who is doing what? What decisions belong to whom? In a well-designed organization, every person understands their role — not just in isolation, but in relation to others.

Accountability is about connection. Connection that is established through discussion and feedback. Who is this role accountable to? How does the organization ensure all responsibilities are being carried out effectively? Accountability doesn’t just flow upward — it connects people across the system, creating shared standards and consequences.

An organized system exists when both responsibility and accountability are present. When one or both are missing, things tend to feel chaotic, progress is jeopardized and individuals likely feel frustrated.

The goal isn’t to add more structure for its own sake. The goal is to create clarity — so that people can focus less on navigating dysfunction and more on doing meaningful work.

For more on organization, design options and the impact of design click HERE.