Intentional Design aligns the organizations structural system and the social system, rather than just tweaking part of one or the other. The misalignment between structural and social systems is the main failure of most new organization designs. Many, if not most, organizations suffer from past failures to gain this alignment.

For example, an organization may have decided to centralize its structure to reduce costs in the field, but did nothing to change the social system causing misalignment in expectation and behavior in the field. Similarly, decentralizing and matrix structures suffer from similar problems. There can also be misalignments within the structural or social system.

Intentional Design considers changes to the organizational structure (what gets grouped together, what gets centralized and decentralized, and who reports to who), but also other aspects of the structural system such as the operating model, job designs, work processes, and reward system.

Intentional Design also evaluates and aligns the social system with the structural system, including the skills of the employees, the methods of coordinating and flexing among team members, how to monitor team effectiveness and create positive team dynamics, the leadership approach, and the cultural norms.

The completed design ensures that all the systems and sub systems are in alignment towards achieving superior results for all stakeholders. Just as seeking improvements in product quality can also improve cost, a well-aligned organization design can improve results for the company, the customers and employees.